Alchemical Lane
by Asher Elric
Summary: Edward finds a transmutation circle that might get him back home. Or into a lot of trouble with Wizards...but who couldn't when your the Fullmetal Alchemist? HPFMA crossover
1. Prologue

**Alchemical Lane**

Edward Elric stuck his bottom lip out in a pout. The Alchemical circle was very complicated, with its lines and several shapes and what have you. However, it looked to be a transportation circle. There were only two levels to Alchemy. You have the normal transmutation circles where you could combine gold with coal and make fake gold, and then you have the sort that can transport oneself to other dimensions. Edward hoped that this circle would help him in his never ending quest to get back to his brother.

Outside, the sun was just peeking over the hills. Several green hills hid the ocean from view, however, Edward could still smell the ocean and the breeze deffinantly found his small home. The cottage was situated in a small clearing; the dirt road came up from the east to take a bend where the cottage sat before going north. Around the cottage sat weeping willows and large magnolias that smelled just glorious during the summer months.

Inside, the parlor was wall to wall with books on Alchemy and alternate science; the time machine being a big part of it. There were even plans of a time machine that Edward had designed, however, had decided was rather stupid when he looked at it again. His initial plan was to make it a "Port Hopper". This meant that it could hop from one dimension to another without any problem; but the formula was terrible. Edward had decided that it was a lost cause and so the plans took up occupancy on the floor.

He sat back, the transmutation book in his lap with a look on his face. It might work, maybe, but…what was he doing? It wouldn't work transmutation circles didn't work in this time. It was considered a taboo science. No one put any trust in it, which was probably most of the problem. Edward's eyes lit up, that was it!

He believed in it!

If he believed in it, than it just HAD to work for him!

He decided to try it out…

* * *

A/N – This is pretty short. However, this is just the prologue. Yes, it is a Harry Potter and Fullmetal Alchemist crossover. I swear I have an idea, I hope you lot go along with me!

Disclaimer – I do not own! lol


	2. Black Holes

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 2 – Black Holes **

**"This just in, a jail break occurring just yesterday means that a dangerous killer is on the run; his name is Sirius Black and he is considered to be armed and dangerous. Do not approach him at all, if you do site Black, call this number…"**

Vernon Dursley snorted in derision. It was people like that who deserved all they got, including his no good nephew, hell, he couldn't even think _Harry Potter_ with out a strong feeling of dislike welling up inside him. Speaking of which, he had to inform his family of something terribly important.

He cleared his throat like a frog that had been on acid before starting; "Petunia, my love, my sister is going to com stay with us for about a week," he announced. A pin could have dropped, however, Petunia recovered herself and smile.

"How lovely, I must air out the Red Room," she smiled. The Red Room, as Petunia Dursley called it was simply an over glorified guest bedroom. It was decorated in horrible floral print; all of it matched all of it. Nothing was different about this room. The only thing that probably made it stand out was the fact that Petunia had spent a lot of money by going to the most expensive places in London for the room.

"Good, good," Vernon smiled, and then he frowned as he caught Harry making a face of disgust.

"Look here boy, if it wasn't for my sister, you'd be in the orphanage by now!"

"Oh? And here I thought you kept me out of the kindness of your hearts," Harry replied as placating as possible. He may be laughing on the outside, but he was glaring on the inside.

"Boy!"

"Vernon, remember your heart," Petunia put in. Hoping to curb a fight before it even happened. In order to keep her happy, Vernon let it drop and Harry went back to his cooking.

--

Believing in something and making it happen are two different things all together. For instance, if Winry had believed that Edward would grow out of his childishness and drank his mil without complaint…well…she could believe for centuries and it would probably never happen. If Al believed that once he had his body back and he and his brother could just settle down in once place that he would have a cat, well, he would have that cat.

However, making Edward Elric do anything that he honestly didn't want to do was believing in mayhem. And that never suited anyone, no matter what.

So, in the parlor, with a chalked outline of the transmutation portation circle all drawn out, but not making anything happen, no matter how much he believed in it…well…Edward was probably going to put the house on fire just because he was that angry and fires started in weird places anyway.

Even though Ed was supposed to be eighteen and grown up, he couldn't help but stand up, kick his books halfway across the bedroom and twitch. "WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THIS SHIT! WHY AREN'T YOU WORKING YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF EFFING SHIT!? WHY WON'T YOU WORK! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT! SO DO IT ALL READY!" he yelled and started jumping on the circle.

Well, when in doubt – better stomp on the damned thing was always a philosophy that Edward figured he could take up on the fly. He completely missed the fact that during is childish temper tantrum that the circle below his feet began to glow a bright yellow. Then, the floor disappeared and Edward found himself falling through a dark hole.

"OH! NOT GOOOOODDDDD!!"

--

Harry made a quick exit out the back door before his Aunt could give him another last minute chore before his 'Aunt' Marge got there. Uncle Vernon had gone to pick up his sister just twenty minutes before and Harry didn't want anything to do with them at the moment.

It was unfair anyway; Dumbledore knew how bad Harry hated it here at the Dursley's. After all, the Headmaster of Hogwarts had to KNOW. But, bloody Professor Know-it-all wouldn't fix it and make sure that Harry actually enjoyed his summers. He had looked it up, right before this summer; in fact, he had snuck off to the Library and looked up some things on adoption. He had found in most of the books he had read (all four) that the blood spell couldn't be broken even if Harry was adopted; it'd just transfer over to whoever he was staying with.

It would have been that way if Dumbledore had actually thought about it and put him with a Wizarding family that would have been happy to have him. In fact, Harry didn't put it past anyone to have tried it if they could have swung it. Oh, wouldn't that be great news for the Ministry of Magic, if one of them found out about the way Harry was treated – they would have removed him with a flick and twist and in a new family that very same day.

During all this soul searching complaining, thirteen year old Harry found himself in the park about halfway down the street. He sighed and sat underneath the old oak tree, the creaking of the swing distracted him for a few moments, but the cool evening breeze helped to calm his once fast-beating heart.

It was then that an odd **SWISHING** noise made him crinkle his face and look up. Above him was a twisting black hole – he blinked. This was just too weird, even for him and he was supposed to be the bloody Boy Who Lived. It was then that he swearing and cussing as a boy, about his age, shorter by five inches with gold hair, fell through the hole and landed with a thud on the grass before him.

Harry didn't know what to think; obviously something weird was going on and it somehow involved him, like always. _I have got to stop thinking things like that; otherwise people will think I'm egotistical. _– Harry shook his head and held out his hand to help the blond kid up.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's just that…" the boy stopped talking as he got a look at his sleeve, Harry blinked, this kid was weird and he didn't know it if was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked again.

"No, I'm…where am I?"

"You're in Surrey, England," Harry replied.

"What's the year?"

"1999," Harry replied as if the boy should know it.

The kid seemed to sigh as he once again realized something else.

"What's your name?" Harry asked.

"Edward Elric, and you?"

"Harry Potter, how'd you get here?"

"What? Didn't you see the black hole above your head?" Edward snapped.

"I did, what made that?" Harry asked, curious about this new magic. That would be a great way to get away from his family if he ever figured out how it worked.

"I'm an Alchemist, that hole was Transportation Portation Circle," Edward explained.

"Alchemist? But…that's bull," Harry said.

"IT IS NOT!" Edward yelled, affronted that Harry would say such a thing.

"Okay, okay, no need to get weird on me. It's just that…no body does Alchemy around here any more," Harry explained.

"Okay, sorry," Edward was still steaming though. Harry wondered how steam could actually come out a person's ears with out some magical candy doing it for them.

"Do you have a place to go?" Harry asked suddenly, he didn't know why he was considering taking Edward home, his relatives would have fit if they found him.

"Ah, no…but don't worry about me," Edward waved his hand as if it meant nothing.

"Never mind, come on, you explain more about your…magic," Harry said.

"It isn't magic, it's Alchemy. There is a difference, and what is it with you and magic? Magic doesn't exist unless you're talking about cards," Edward snorted.

"Well, you're an Alchemist and I am a Wizard so…I suppose there is little difference since we can both testify to doing odd things," Harry replied.

"Okay, well…I guess the first thing about Alchemy you should know is…" and with that the two boys set off down the street, Edward explaining about Alchemy.

From the shadow's – a large black dog watched them wonder off.

--

a/n – Sorry for the long wait for an update. I just got an idea for this because at work I can get youtube…so…yeah. Please enjoy!

Professor Know-it-all


	3. Queer Sightings

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 3 – Queer Sightings**

**Edward couldn't help but notice how weird this whole thing was. **

Here he was – in a very odd place, talking to a boy who called himself Harry and believed in Magic, the boy even had a wand to prove it. But, he couldn't do magic outside of school. Well, that did make sense; even Edward had some restrictions when he was training with his sensei. But, in the end he learned more because of it. From the way Harry explained, it sounded more like complaining.

_But, where else do I have to go? At least he's putting me up, if only for the night._ Edward thought. They got to a house that was way too normal to be good. In fact, Edward got a terribly bad feeling about it. At this, Harry turned to him.

"Look, my relatives don't like me and they'd hate it if they found out I'd brought you home, so…can you climb a wall?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, why?" Edward raised a knowing eyebrow.

"Because, they can't know that you're here," Harry replied.

"Ah,"

Harry led Edward through the Garden and pointed at the second story window; "Think you can get up there?" Harry asked. Thankfully, there was some huge ivy growing up the side of the house. Edward thought that now, since he was back in his thirteen year old body, wearing his red coat with the Alchemical seal on the back – with working Automail and not that stupid plastic shit from the 1920's.

"HARRY POTTER!" an angry yelling came from the house. Edward raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything.

"Gotta go, sorry," Harry muttered and then made for the house. Edward sighed, figuring that the only way he would get any rest was to climb the wall of ivy.

--

Once Harry had made it into the house, he was put to work. Cooking dinner on his own and having to put up with his 'Aunt' Marge who liked to insult his father and mother who weren't even around to defend themselves. Of course, if they had been there, none of this would have happened and he would be loved.

Harry knew that he had to keep his temper and his head down. If he did so, maybe he could get Uncle Vernon to sign his pass to Hogsmead. Well, it was hope, at least.

--

Edward knew that he had been waiting in Harry's bedroom for around three hours by the time he had broke down and looked at the books that threatened to pile over the trunk that was open at the edge of the bed. One was called _The History of Magic – Second Year Edition_. It was pretty informative, especially after Edward had discovered the first edition and he kept going between then. He learned that Wizard Merlin had been very respected in his day's and that Witches, though burned at the steak, never really died, they'd cast something called a freezing charm on the flames and pretend as if they were dying a most horrible death. There had even been a witch that had LET herself be caught over twelve times just to be burned.

A weird fetish, but at least it wasn't as bad as Mustang and his bloody short jokes. Edward was about halfway through both books when Harry had been sent to bed; he had been able to sneak some food for Edward. Even if he had to hide the boy, it was bad form to not feed him, at least.

"What are reading?" Harry asked.

"I didn't believe you about magic till I found all these books, the potions look promising but I figured the history was the best place to start," Edward explained looking up from the book and accepting the food. It was cold, but food was food.

"Oh," Harry didn't know what to say to that, it was only books and he had left them out so…and what did he really have to say to that. He was sure that if he randomly showed up in some distant place that he would also like to know something.

"Though, I wonder…" at this, Edward sat up and took a huge bite out of his chicken leg. "I wonder if the _Harry James Potter_ that is mentioned in Chapter twenty, part two, Modern Magical History, is the same Harry Potter I am talking to right now," Edward said pointedly.

"The one and only," Harry grimaced.

"Well, I have had some of those problems, people always wanting to take over the country or world are always a pain in the ass," Edward shrugged as if it were no big deal.

"Yeah, but I bet you don't have a lot of people hounding you about it," Harry snorted.

"True, but I ain't the only one who does it, I'm part of what is called a State Alchemist," Edward said.

"Oh," Harry blinked and sat down at the desk.

"Yeah, so, we work together to protect the people,"

"I wish I had others who worked and believed in me instead of keeping me in the dark," Harry said.

"Yeah, that can be a bummer some times," Edward agreed.

"Yeah," Harry couldn't bring himself to say anything else.

--

"Wait, what happened?" Minerva McGonagall asked, she set her tea cup down as Arabella Fig started to explain it again.

"It was very odd, even for me and I would know magic when I saw it, but I don't know anything about a magical black hole appearing out of no where, right in front of Harry Potter – and then, the boy just took the stranger home.

Could Harry Potter be stupider than at just that particular moment?

"I'll have to talk to Albus about this, I don't know of anything like that either," Minerva admitted.

"Apparently, if anyone would know, it would be Albus," Arabella agreed. One of her cats jumped onto the table, but Arabella shooed the cat off, if there was one thing she wouldn't stand, it was for her cat's to be near food or on her table. Minerva appreciated it.

"What did this boy look like?" Minerva asked.

"I would say he was about twelve, short, blond hair and yellow eyes. Cute though," Arabella replied.

"Interesting," Minerva nodded her head.

"What's even more interesting is that he had on this coat that has Flamel's sign on the back of it," Arabella pointed out.

"Curious," Minerva sipped at her tea. Oh, someone had to look in on this.

--

Harry snuck down the hall to get more blankets. Thankfully, it was in a closet that he knew his Aunt never opened, so, a couple of missing blankets and pillow wouldn't go missed. His Potter luck must have held out, for his cousin, who was watching the telly, playing a video game and chatting to Piers on the phone – didn't talk to him.

Edward had started on the first year potions book by the time Harry had gotten there. Harry was very much afraid that he had another book worm on his hands.

"Do you always read books?" Harry asked.

"It's the best way to get information," Edward intoned, "By the way, the little notes on the side are amusing, if only I understood who this Snape person was I'd understand it a bit more," Edward explained.

"I'll tell you about Snape…" and Harry launched into a random explanation about the greasy Potions Professor.

--

Marge Ivory Dursley thought of herself as a very shrewd woman. For one, she was the most fashionable out of all her Bridge Playing friends. Amelia was chubby and dull, Samantha was too thin and always purged, which was odd for a seventy five year old, and Lassie barked too much for Marge's comfort. Secondly, Marge had a doctorate in Dog Breeding. People for miles around went to her for all of their dog problems. But, she loved her bull dogs in particular and was even more of an expert on them.

For once in her life she wished that she had a doctorate in children. Not that she particularly liked that Dudley was thirty pounds over weight for his height, and age and…well, maybe she was deluding herself, she thought as she watched the boy watch television and yell for Petunia to get him more ice cream.

She wasn't about to tell Vernon how to raise his own son, they had had that conversation and it hadn't turned out well at all, so, she decided just to dote on the boy like Vernon and Petunia liked and that was the end of that. She had to admit though, the Potter boy was queer. He dressed in clothing that didn't fit, his eye glasses almost seemed to be broken all the time and he had a mouth on him like none other.

It was breeding, she decided with a smirk. It had to do with his mother, for sure. Marge had only met the woman once, at the wedding when Vernon married Petunia, but the girl was beautiful and the man that accompanied her was quite handsome. But, Petunia had explained that the man was most dreadful, he was drunk most of the time and abusive, Petunia had sighed sadly and had expressed the feeling that she wished Lily had a better head about the man she would ultimately marry, because the Potter boy had gotten Lily pregnant…and they weren't even MARRIED!

Well, that had done it in for her, Marge remembered thinking that Lily was just terrible for letting herself being taken advantage of like that by the boy and even though Potter acted quite charming – Marge was sure that he was a bastard.

Well, it was too late for Harry then. If the boy had been born a Dursley, he would have had better odds in the world. Too late for him then: "You, boy! Get us some tea," Marge demanded with a wave of her hand, shooing the green-eyed boy (a terrible eye color if there ever was one) to the kitchen.

"I say, Petunia dear, how do you put up with him?" Marge asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, you know, we just get by," Petunia replied.

As the woman gossiped, Dudley watched the telly and as Vernon was grabbing up his coat and case to start to head in for work –outside, where it was raining badly, a man in rotten clothing and long black, knotted hair, looked in the window. His ice blue eyes took it all in, the warmth of a family that knew each other, and the loneliness of one boy who would have liked to have been accepted but would never admit it.

He knew that feeling.

--

Edward stared out of the window, he had let Hedwig out for a flight, she had become twitchy and hooting too loudly and Edward had been afraid that Harry's relatives would have become snoopy if he didn't do something about it. So, Edward had let the thankful owl go and had settled back in front of the once again closed window in order to watch the rain. He was glad that he wasn't out in it, it looked to be miserable and Edward could remember plenty of times when he had been caught in such rain, once it had been so bad that he had gotten Pneumonia, by the time he had realized it – things had become too late and it was a miracle that he had survived. The Doctors in Central were sure that he would die.

But, somehow, Edward had fought it off and he woke with the fever broken. This sort of rain made him think of that time, how worried Al, Mustang, Hawkeye and the rest had been. They had actually sat by his bedside the entire time – and after that, Edward remembered being on house arrest. He had to stay in bed for two whole months. It had driven him crazy, but Mustang and Hawkeye became close and by the end of it, they had decided to try out dating. It was weird, Edward shook his head as he wondered what their responses would have been if he had called them Mom and Dad – they acted so much like it.

For a moment, Edward wished that he had a parent right then, he was tired of having to take care of himself, though, he would never admit it, not even allowed.

--

At that very moment, Harry wished that his parents hadn't died that long ago day on Halloween, the worst holiday that had ever been conceived. He wouldn't be there, listening to Marge and the others go on and on about how terrible he was, how weird he was, how he should be thankful about having a roof over his head and clothing on his back.

He was a Wizard, for Merlin's sake! He was rich beyond measure and he could only touch the trust fund. Harry wondered if he could live off of that, if he could get a flat and just stay there, maybe he could get someone to put a spell on it so that no one could find it. But who? He wondered, he and his friend were underage, so they couldn't do it. Harry didn't have any other family who would have helped him along either. And Edward was an _Alchemist_, that wasn't magic, even though some of the transmutations that Edward had done in front of Harry had seemed like magic.

Alchemy must have been different from magic on some level; for a Ministry Owl hadn't arrived with a letter warning Harry to not use magic. Which was a good thing. Edward had apparently understood that Harry couldn't do magic and so settled for waiting till he could meet a real Wizard, he also had to settle for Harry's books. He was partway through first year and was always asking questions. What is this, why does it do this and blah, blah, blah…

Harry didn't know how to answer some of the more complex questions that Harry had, like how there was no payment for the magic, how it could just happen and nothing had to be sacrificed, unlike Alchemy where something had to be sacrificed for something else. He supposed that there had to be something to that method though. It didn't sound easy, in fact, it sounded down right hard.

No wonder no one but the smart kids in school took that class. It would have melted his brain and Harry figured that he would need it.

Harry turned with his tea laden tray to take back to the parlor when he caught site of something terribly odd through his peripheral vision. It looked like a head of dark hair, drenched from the rain outside and ice blue eyes that he felt he should know. As he turned his head to see whatever it could be, he was tripped, and fell face forward onto the floor.

The tea tray flew up, up, up, up, up and up. Harry was sure that it would fly all over the place and he would be in trouble. But, something odd happened, the tea tray held itself together and landed right side up on the coffee table. Harry looked to the window, but he just saw a hand and a wand before whoever had been there was out of site.

"Where is out…" apparently neither Petunia or Marge had been observant enough to see Harry's near demised tea tray and happily poured themselves and Dudley tea. Harry picked himself up, he would have to find out who had saved him and thank the man, even if the Wizard was a Death Eater – Voldemort was nothing compared to his Aunt on a cleaning rampage.

Harry shuddered.

--

It was nearly nine when Harry was able to go back up to his bedroom. He had brought plenty of food for Edward who seemed to be very hungry. "You know," Edward started right away, "I think it would be interesting to see these potions made myself,"

"You like potions?" Harry asked.

"It's the least bit of this magic stuff that I've seen that doesn't really use it, I mean, there all ingredients, not wand waving and hocus-pocus shit," Edward said with a shrug.

"Well, I suppose…" Harry muttered. Harry looked outside and noticed a large black dog had taken refuge under the eaves of Mrs. Patrick's garden shed. The dog looked up and wagged its tail; Harry assumed it had gotten a look at him. He turned away from the window.

"Did you notice anyone lurking about?" Harry asked.

"No," Edward replied with a yawn.

--

a/n –

me – I shaved my legs.

Edward – What does that have to do with the story?

Me – Nothing, oh, I just wanted people to know that in the second chapter Edward actually said "Oh, not good," not "Oh, not God!" savvy? I elongated the vowel and so that's why I figured someone had gotten confused.

Ta,

Professor Know-It-All


	4. Enter Severus Snape

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 4 – Enter Professor Severus Snape**

**It always started out like this; he decided as he popped into the most boring neighborhood he had ever seen.** For one, he had a dreadful feeling that he would become soft and take the Potter boy away from the Dursley family and raise him as his own son. Wherever the hell that feeling had come from, he didn't know, but he didn't like it at all.

So, when he knocked on the door and it was opened by none other than Petunia Dursley, Severus almost lost his voice. He hadn't talked to the little sister of Lily in ages and even when he had…he found that he had little patience for her. Though, on one level or another, he had wished that she'd be nice to Lily, his dearest friend.

"Severus," Petunia said softly, "Whatever has brought you here?" she asked.

"You're nephew, the Potter boy, apparently has a penchant for picking up strays," Severus replied, he didn't sneer at Petunia. Lily had always hated it when he had done so.

"Well, do come in," Petunia let the Wizard enter. He hadn't bothered to blend in with his surroundings, he wore dark green robes but his hair had been pulled back. She could smell the musty scent of a cellar on him.

"Harry Potter! Come down here and bring your friend!" Petunia called up the stairs. Two pairs of footsteps hurried about the room before a boy with black hair and glasses stomped down the stairs, rather surprised when he caught site of Severus Snape. Next came a boy who was hurriedly pulling on a red coat, he had blond hair pulled back in a lose braid.

"Who is that, boy?" Petunia growled. Harry just blinked as the blond kid pushed past him.

"My name is Edward Elric, Miss…?" Edward held out his non-metal hand, he also had a rather nervous smile on his face.

"Dursley," the woman replied but she didn't take his hand.

"Petunia, mind if I take these boys into the kitchen?" Severus asked politely, though he did sneer at Harry.

"Go ahead, Severus," Petunia replied with a tight nod of her head.

Severus walked past the boys, his robes fluttering about as if he was playing at being Vlad Dracula. Harry shook his head and followed, Edward behind him. Edward figured that this man must be Snape, not only by Petunia addressing him by his first name of Severus, but also the fact that the man had a rather large, hooked now and greasy hair.

Snape pointed to two chairs and silently the boys took them. Edward folded his arms behind his head and took on a boring position. By the annoyance that flashed through Snape, Edward had a pretty good idea that he didn't like him much.

"So, Potter, bringing home stray's I see," Snape sneered.

"Yeah," Harry replied indignantly. Edward yawned and stared up at the ceiling.

"Did it occur to you that this kid could be a Death Eater?" Snape asked, he propped an eyebrow at both boys.

"Now, hold on one moment," Edward deemed to look up at Snape, "I am not a _Death Eater_, whatever the hell that is, I'm a State Alchemist,"

"A what?" Harry asked.

"I told you about Alchemy, remember? Well, in my world the Army Employ's Alchemist's for jobs that normal soldier's can't do," Edward dug into his left pocket and held up a pocket watch on a silver chain, it had what looked like a lion as a symbol on the front.

"This is our status," Edward grinned happily.

"Needless to say, Potter, it was irresponsible of you," Snape admonished, not that it had any affect on the boys.

"He fell through a hole in the sky, what was I supposed to do?" Harry rolled his eyes.

"Send a letter to the Order?" Snape suggested.

"Right, that would have gone well," Harry snorted in derision.

"Maybe better than having someone see us out there and tell them on you," Edward hypothesized, he didn't know what this Order was, but he had a feeling that it had to be some sort of Government thing.

"So, what now?" Harry asked. Snape sneered at the both of them.

"I'm supposed to take you and Elric here to Professor Dumbledore. He'll make sure that whatever Elric say's is the truth," Snape explained.

"Great," Edward rolled his eyes, why did these sorts of things had to happen to him?

--

**Down Town Lior, Amestris**

The rouge Alchemist was looking rather too full of himself for Al's comfort. Around the two of them stood huge mirrors, five in all. From a distance, or so it seemed to Al, he could hear the screaming of the innocents. Why was it always Lior that got crushed by Alchemy? It didn't make sense, but Al figured that there were a lot of things that didn't make sense.

Like that missing part of him, his lost memories weren't the only thing he was missing. Whatever it was though, everyone seemed to know, everyone except himself.

"I have no clue what you're talking about," El smiled, "But, I have to stop you now. It would be easier if you'd just give up and turn yourself over to the army," he shrugged.

"Why should I?" the Aqua Alchemist, aka, Joey Hartz, replied with a sinister grin (well, he looked more like he had eaten a bug and spat it out. But hey, a bad-guy has to try!)

"It was only a suggestion, but I must warn you…I don't need chalk for the sort of Transmutation I do," Al said, he was too fair sometimes, at least, someone had told him so. A flash of blond hair and yellow eyes, a grin and red…the vision was gone before Al could solidify it in his head. Who was that boy…?

Due to such distraction, Aqua had a full tow second lead on his alchemy. A huge pillar of water blew from the earth, before it took on the looks of a spear and headed straight towards Al's head. Al dodged to the side, a clap of his hands he was surrounded by a ring of blue fire. The water headed for him again but sizzled as it touched the Alchemical fire.

"GRRRRR! DAMN YOU ALPHONSE ELRIC!" the man yelled, "DAMN YOU AND YOUR BORTHER, ALWAYS GETTING IN MY WAAAAAYYYY!!" Aqua yelled.

Al blinked at the man; "What? What did you say? I have a brother?"

--

**Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, someplace in Scotland**

Edward and Harry sat in the brightly lit office of one Albus Dumbledore. Harry stared off into the fire, wondering as to why Dumbledore would leave them alone in his office for such a long time. Edward was looking over the books. Dumbledore seemed to be interested in lots of things, especially Alchemy.

One book caught his interest; **The Magic of Alchemy: the Philosopher's Stone. **Edward was going to reach for it when a man in deep purple robes and a funnily pointed hat arrived. Edward and Harry followed the man with their eyes till he sat down behind his desk.

"Well then, would anyone like a lemon drop?" Professor Dumbledore asked with a smile. Edward and Harry both shook their heads as they took seats in front of the desk.

"So, Harry, this is your friend I have heard about?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, I am Edward Elric," Edward answered for Harry.

"And how did you get here?" Dumbledore asked.

"Broom," Edward joked.

"Ah, I see, funny thing broom's," Dumbledore said.

"Yeah," Edward agreed. Harry had no clue what Edward was doing but waited to see what would happen next.

"Anyway, I'm trying to get back to my brother," Edward explained, "We've been separated for a about a year now and I need to find him,"

"Brother?" Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled. This gave Edward a bad feeling. Armstrong twinkled as well, but at least the man had a heart of gold, this twinkling just gave Edward a bad feeling deep within his gut. He couldn't tell this man a thing if he were to get back to his brother.

"Yeah, his name is Al," Edward gave up that much.

"Ah, well maybe I can help you with that," Dumbledore replied.

"Probably not," Edward muttered under his breath.

Dumbledore stood, "Well, I've determined that you are no Death Eater. But, I cannot send you or Harry back to the Dursley's since they obviously don't want neither of you there," Dumbledore said.

"They didn't want me in the first place," Harry put in, glaring.

"So, you shall spend the summer with the Weasely's," Dumbledore announced.

--

A/N – Okay, this may seem a bit short. And it might get weirder from here on out. But, I do hope that you shall stay with me. Oh, and there will be Severitus but with a twist. If you think you can guess, let me know and I shall donate a chapter to you! lol

Ta,

Professor Know-It-All


	5. Memories Taken

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 5 – Memories Taken**

_He was by a river. It was early evening and the sky was clear, only the moon shone. The wind drifted past him, bringing to him the smell of roses and moon-glories. The moon-glories only bloomed during a full moon on such a night as this. Al remembered it being something that he had always loved to watch. _

_As he walks down the dirt road besides the river; Al knows that something is wrong, he doesn't know what though. He had the feeling that he is actually looking for something in this dream. He had no clue what he was looking for. _

_"Al!" _

_Someone was calling his name, looking around, Al saw another boy with blond hair and yellow eyes. He wore a red jacket and waved friendly to Al. _

_"Al! there you are! Are was looking all over for you," the boy said._

_"Who…who are you…?" Al asked._

_"Al, you know me, c'mon!" the boy's look was slightly dubious, but he smiled anyway._

_"Go where?" Al asked._

_"Away, remember…we have to get your body back…." The boy replied._

_As the scenery around his disappeared, Al looked down, he was sure he was all right but…he was suddenly encased in armor. _

_"What happened to me…?" he looked up but the boy from before was gone. _

--

**Lior Hospital, Lior, Amestris**

Slowly, he opened his eyes. He was in a sandy colored room that smelled of different cleaning agents, mostly lemon. He knew that he was in the only hospital Lior boasted. Sitting up in order to dress, Al noted the bandages on his arms and legs. Beside the bed was a tray that held different tools and a bowl of glass.

"Huh, it was possibly an alchemical reaction. The glass broke because of our fight," Al muttered to himself. He drew on his clothing and combed out his hair before he put it back into the pony tail. As he finished tying it, a grunt from the door made him spin to see Louis Armstrong and Roze standing there.

"Oh, hello," Al smiled gently.

"Al, are you sure you should be up?" Roze asked.

"I'm fine," Al replied. A frown came over him then and he thought back on his dream.

"The Aqua Alchemist said something about me having a brother," Al said, he noted the shocked look on Roze's face, but Armstrong didn't look surprised at all.

"Is it true? Do I have a brother?" Al asked.

After a moment of silence, Armstrong walked into the room and put his hand gently on Al's shoulder; "That isn't a question we can answer, you'll have to find Roy Mustang," Armstrong explained.

--

**The Weasley Family Home, Otter St. Catchpole, England**

_So,_ Edward thought as he and Harry were welcomed by the huge family, _this is the Weasley family, huh? I hope they aren't nosey._ Edward followed as Harry was enveloped by the bright, red-headed family. Hanging back, Edward just observed.

In a corner was a broom that moved on its own; next to that in the wash tub was clothing that was being scrubbed by soap and run across a wash board, also on its own. On the stove was a pan that was flipping pancakes with a spoon and a bowl of batter standing by to pour more.

Edward leaned down to watch the magic at work, it was these sorts of things that he knew Alchemy could never achieve, things could be made, things could be destroyed, but in the end, you had to sacrifice something in order to get the desired effect. Magic, from what he read and had seen so far, no sacrifice was needed to make the magic work.

"Oh, Edward!" Mrs. Molly Weasley walked over to him, "Isn't it amazing?" she asked. Apparently, Dumbledore had told her that Edward wasn't a wizard and so magic was still very new to him. Edward nodded out of politeness. "Yes" he agreed.

"Come and sit down, you've had a long night, you and Harry can sleep till this afternoon," Molly said. She sent her children out of the kitchen in the guise of the boys being tired and that they didn't need anyone to bug them while they ate. Ron went to clean up his room so that Harry and Edward could have room to sleep.

Molly served the food before she went upstairs to help Ronald with his room. With three boys sleeping there, she knew that she would have to transfigure the room to a bigger size with two more beds.

"So, is this where you stay during the summer?" Edward asked, taking a big bite of the pancakes.

"Yeah, sometimes," Harry shrugged.

"Why?" Edward asked bluntly.

"It's complicated," Harry replied. Edward nodded, he wouldn't push right then.

When they had finished, Harry and Edward wondered upstairs to Ron's bedroom. The orange wall's, from what Harry remembered, was bigger. There were now three beds two on either side of the window and one on the wall to the right of the open door. Molly and Ron had abandoned the room moments before. Harry pointed out Ron's bed to Edward, who fell onto the bed by the door.

"Wow, this is so much better then your floor," Edward muttered. Harry was going to retort, but the soft snores coming from the blond boy stopped him. Shaking his head, Harry collapsed onto his own bed; soon, he too was asleep.

--

**Central City, Army Head Quarters, Colonel Roy Mustang's office**

"So," the man sounded slightly interested, "You told him then?"

From the other end of the line, Roy Mustang listened to Louis Armstrong's explanation. Alphonse Elric wasn't technically a State Alchemist, but he had been thinking about it. He had no memory of his life before his brother had been usurped from Amestris due to the Gate. Whatever that was.

"No" Armstrong had replied, "I told Alphonse to find you,"

"Good, good. Thank you, Armstrong," Roy said.

"Just following orders,"

"As do we all," Mustang said before he hung up on the Major.

Sitting back in his chair, Roy sighed, his plan's for the usurping of Furor Bradley was well in place and by this time it was too late to turn back. Of course, it would be a whole lot easier if Fullmetal hadn't disappeared off the face of the planet, but, he hoped that the younger Elric would be able to help him.

He'd have to play this carefully, he would do anything to become Furor; but, he didn't want to lie to the younger brother. It was dishonorable on many different levels.

--

**Lior, Amestris**

"Be careful, Alphonse," Roze said. The young boy smiled at her.

"Don't worry, Roze, I can take care of myself," Al replied.

"I know, but…it's always just amazing that you and…" Roze stopped.

"It's all right, Roze, I know you can't say anything," Al said understandingly.

"Be careful, and drink plenty of water," Roze replied. Al nodded and turned towards the desert. It was going to be a long walk to Central, or even the nearest train station.

The sun was just beginning to set, it would be a cold night, but it was better to travel by night in the desert. Al wondered if this "quest" was worth it, he hoped it wasn't a lie. He had to suffer not remembering people that seemed to know him – it would hurt more if he was told he had a brother, but then found it that it was a lie.

How he hoped it wasn't a lie. Maybe if he found this "brother" of his – he would be able to regain his memories. He needed to remember his past so that he could work for the future.

--

A/n – Okay, I have been listening to a pod-cast called _The Annotated Alchemist,_ which gives a recap of the episode and you get a short commentary at the end and learn some cool things. Like how the writer of the Manga, Fullmetal, is actually a woman. I suppose I would have figured that out eventually if I looked up the name of the Author, but, I don't read something just because of a name. Anyway, I am at ep. 13. I love the fight between Edward and Mustang. It's just so funny!

Oh, and Mustang really will be good in this, but he's had these plans in place for, like forever, I know that on one level he may use Al to his own advantage. But, Al and Edward have always gone by "Equivalent Exchange". So, it would makes sense that if Al wanted to know if he really had a brother and what happened, he would try to help Mustang get into power.

I am afraid that I have given away too much, but, I would have probably deduced as much if this was written by someone else. Thank you, have fun reviewing!

Ta

Professor Know It All


	6. DON'T CALL ME SHORT!

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 6 – DON'T CALL ME SHORT!!**

**--**

**Weasley Family Home, Otter St. Catchpole, England**

Edward had found a quiet spot out in the garden; he had abandoned his red coat inside in favor of just his black, sleeveless shirt, the summer day wasn't too hot, like his native home of Resembool. Instead, the summer day was slightly cool, calling to any observer that autumn would soon be upon the country side.

In his hands, Edward held a transfiguration book; it was a second year book of Harry's and Edward wondered much at the techniques he read about. How animals could be transfigured into cups, plates and other things, even into another animal entirely. It went against all that he knew, but, it was magic. Could Magic be the Alchemy in this world? Edward wondered.

Since there was no Equivalent Exchange in this Magic, Edward understood why the family would use it so much, it was just a tool to them. Of course, Edward knew that Alchemy could also be used as tool, he used it to help himself and his brother, Al, through their adventures as State Alchemists looking for the Philosopher's Stone.

But, Teacher had taught both boy's that Alchemy wasn't something to be used all the time, that to do things yourself was just as good as using Alchemy and by doing things on your own, with no Alchemy to help, you get a greater sense of worth, that the Alchemy doesn't make you who you are, but it is you making yourself.

Edward smiled at these thoughts, that month they had been along on that island, while some crazy animal man chased them all around – that had taught them a lot, ingenuity mostly. But, it was slightly embarrassing when they had visited the island a second time and found out that it was Izumi Curtis' husband who had been the wild man.

"How embarrassing," Edward mumbled as he closed the book. How he could have missed that was beyond him, he and Al were child prodigies. It was embarrassing to miss such an easy fact.

Edward heard several footsteps running through the house and as the back door banged open, Edward blinked as several Weasley kids ran out into the yard. Laughing, Fred and George ducked shoes that Ginny was throwing at them in anger. On her face was face paint that made her look like a mad clown.

"You slimy gits!" Ginny yelled as a black shoe hit Fred in the nose.

"Oh come on, Ginny, t'was only a joke!"

"It's not very funny!" Ginny yelled. The boy's took off running full tilt down the hill the lead from the back yard of the funnily leaning house, a girl-clown running after them. Edward laughed fully after the girl with shoes as weaponry was out of eye site. He had to admit, the Weasley children were quite entertaining.

Voices from inside, in the kitchen, drew his attention. Edward smirked; he always did love to eavesdrop onto other peoples conversations. It really was the best way to get information, no matter what some may say about it being rude.

"So, who is he?" the voice of Ronald Weasley floated out to Edward.

"He's just a kid stuck in our time, I don't know who he really is. Edward say's he's a State Alchemist," Harry explained.

"Rather weird, don't you think? He just fell out of the sky and you trust him?" Ron asked.

"What else was I supposed to do? You'd feel bad if someone just dropped in front of you and didn't have a place to go," Harry sighed.

"So, what else happened?" Ron asked.

"I saw…something…I don't know…" Harry trailed off.

"What did you see?"

"I was serving tea to my relatives when…well, I tripped and the tea tray was going to crash on the floor, but some how it ended up right side up on the coffee table. It was like someone floated everything over, not spilling a drop," Harry explained.

"Wow, that's some good magic," Ron muttered.

"I thought I had seen something peering into the house from a window before I tripped but when I looked back, it was gone," Harry finished.

"Huh, do you think it could have been a wizard looking in on you?" Ron asked.

"What, checking if I was all right?" Harry muttered.

Edward snuck towards the window and flattened himself against the wall.

"Well, yeah, maybe Dumbledore sent someone to see if everything was all right," Ron suggested.

"Why would he do that?" Harry asked.

"Beats me, but a Death Eater wouldn't have helped you like that," Ron said.

"You're right," Harry agreed.

Harry and Ron walked off and Edward was left under the window wondering what Harry and Ron had been talking about in the first place. Sighing, Edward went back to his previous seat and opened the book back to the last page number he remembered.

--

**Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland, Snape's Office**

Lucius and Severus sat in front of the fire in Snape's private office. The room was dank but warm; both men sipped black tea that was served by a self serving tea pot.

"It is no secret about the boy falling from the sky," Lucius said.

"I know, the Dark Lord has talked to me about it," Severus replied.

"So, what did you tell him?" Lucius asked.

"I told him the boy's name, that he claimed to be an Alchemist, we don't know how nor why he fell out of the sky, but that Dumbledore is going to find out how the boy did it," Severus replied.

"What is the boy's name?" Lucius asked.

"Edward Elric," Severus sneered.

"Hmmmm…is he good?" Lucius wondered.

"I don't know, he hasn't done any Alchemy," Severus shrugged.

"If he is good, if he is really, very good, what will Dumbledore do? I suppose he would try and harness the child as a weapon against us, wouldn't he?" Lucius raised an eyebrow at Severus.

"Possibly, but, we can't let that happen, now can we?" Severus pointed out.

"No, we can't. If his Alchemy is anywhere near as good as magic, and if he has mastered it like you have hinted at, then he would be a weapon worth to have," Lucius said.

"At the same time, we can't let the Ministry on to it either," Severus sighed.

"You're right," Lucius nodded, he sipped at his tea.

"We'll have to get the boy then," he added.

"Probably, but we shall wait to see what the Dark Lord wishes of us," Severus reminded Lucius; who nodded his agreement once again.

--

**Weasley Home, Otter St. Catchpole, England**

Edward looked angrily down at his coat. It had once been bright red with his Alchemical sign on the back. It was his uniform that showed others that he was for the people, the famed Fullmetal Alchemist. Now, it lay on the floor slightly burnt and a mirage of colors from blue to puke green. This terrible use of his property was by way of the Twins; whom, Edward, very much wanted to beat into the ground.

Clapping his hands once, Ed kneeled down and touched his coat, with a glow of Alchemical light, his coat was transmuted back into the pure meaning that it had for him before its mistreatment. Edward turned to the laughing teens who had missed his transmutation trick all together.

"So, you think that's funny, do ya?' Edward growled.

"It was just a joke," Fred laughed.

"Yeah, shorty!" George agreed.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THAT HE CAN BARELY GET INTO THE CHAIR!!" Edward yelled, failing his limbs about madly.

"We didn't say that!" Fred blinked.

"You meant it!" Edward seethed.

"Wow, for a short guy he has some big lungs…" George said, then both twins turned and ran as the diminutive blond ran after them yelling about his height.

"SO YOU THINK IT'S FUNNY TO MAKE FUN OF MY HEIGHT! I'LL SHOW YOU HEIGHT! I'M GONNA CUT YOU DOWN AND SHOW YOU! WHEN YOU'RE WALKING ON YOUR KNEES YOU'LL UNDERSTAND ALL THE SHIT I HAVE TO GO THROUGH!!"

The three hell-raisers ran out of the house and the twins led Edward on a circle around the house, behind them a dust trail followed.

"Gee, I never knew someone that short could be so loud," Ron sniggered.

"DON'T CALL ME SHOOOOOOORRRRTTTTTTT!!"

Ron and Harry sniggered as they turned back into the house.

--

a/n – NOOOOO!! FILLER CHAPTER!!

Boy, I hate writing filler…but…it had to be done! See ya… (runs off)


	7. Lost and Found

A/n – To Vi, I am not sure what I shall do with Snape. The way that I want to set up this plot, well, it would soon become a HP AU. I hope you are open minded to such a plot. The other thing is that there could be a second plot that would actually stay a bit more true to the books – so…I don't know what I want to do. Thank you for all of your reviews.

And I want to thank everyone else as well. Thank you!

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 7 – Lost and Found**

**--**

**Resembool, Amestris**

_Al laughed at his brother as Edward gave another village kid a lecture on calling him short. Edward Elric was a bit sensitive about his height and it didn't help at all that Alphonse, the younger by a year, was older by an inch. Really, Alphonse didn't know why Ed was weird about it, but, he tried not to bring the subject up, unless Ed was being mean. _

_"Can you believe that kid?" Ed whipped his hands together, a frown still marring his face, "Stupid idiot thinks that just because he's taller by three inches that he is so much cooler!" _

_"Come now, Brother, you'll grow," Alphonse replied, trying to make Edward feel better._

_"Yeah, yeah I'm sure I will, one day," Ed smiled at Al. _

_"Let's go make something," Ed said as an afterthought, forgetting completely about the kid who had called him short in the first place._

_"We'll make something for Mom, she's looking sad a little bit," Ed sighed._

_"Yeah, we really should do something to make her smile," Al agreed._

_--_

**Cold Rock Cliff, Amestris**

Alphonse awoke to the sun glinting over the mineral cliff that the city was built on. Actually, the city had been built under a precipice of the cliff which burrowed under and inside the stone ground. This revealed several elements that the city sold off to Alchemists of the State and to Jewelers to keep up the expensive and expansive repairs to the rock city.

Al was staying in a local Inn, his bedroom faced out towards the dangerous fall, but the sound of the ocean and the glint of sunlight made up for such danger. Al blinked, he had dreamed about the boy again, but this time (at least from what he remembered) the boy and himself had been much younger and their mother had been mentioned.

Al didn't remember ever having a mother, he didn't remember having a brother, and it really bothered him that no one had bothered to tell him. He had gone about the county for a year now and had re-met people that he should have known from before. His quest for his memories had now taken on something more. Something he wasn't quite sure of but knew that he had to complete.

Sighing, Al threw the blankets away and crossed the bedroom to the small bathroom that the hotel room boasted. He decided to take a shower and forget about the odd dream. But, he really wanted to know who the boy was and if his suspicion of the blond haired boy was in all actuality his brother.

On one level he hoped so and on another he was scared to find out.

**--**

**Weasley Family Home, Otter St. Catchpole, England**

Ed sat under the old oak tree in the back yard, this time no books were anywhere to be seen, instead, sitting besides him was a small oil can, a rag and polishing agent of a muggle kind. Ed knew that Muggles were non-magic-people. He was glad though that Mr. Weasley liked muggle inventions, he could now take care of the automail that reappeared once he had fallen through the whole from the late 1920's to wherever the hell he was now.

Moving his automail arm in several different sized circles, Ed was glad to see that it was in fine condition. He wasn't at all concerned about someone finding him like this, the house was empty – the whole family had gone to a place called 'Diagon Alley' for school supplies. That was when Edward, having gotten bored, went rummaging around and found the oil and other supplies to keep up his automail.

Taking up the rag to clean up the oil before he shined up his metal limb, Edward wondered what he was supposed to do now. He knew that he wouldn't go to the Hogwarts School like the other Wizarding children were. He was an Alchemist and had seen a hell of a lot more than the children around him (even if some were the same age as himself), sure, they did talk about a war, but it seemed as if the threat of war wasn't important to them. The fact that any moment some people could just jump them and make their lives hell wasn't something that they cared about.

On one level, Edward thought them lame that they didn't take this threat to heart. On another, he understood why. When he and Al were children, they hadn't care about what the State was doing nor why, all they cared about was Alchemy and making their mother happy.

"What would I give to have those days back," Edward mumbled to himself.

"No," he sighed, looking up from his work at the clear blue sky, "Human Transmutation only gave us more grief; we never should have attempted it. I was such an idiot," Edward took up the polishing agent and dipped the rag in; after he polished his arm he would do the same with his leg. He wasn't expecting the Weasley family home any time soon and since Harry seemed to be loved and accepted here, Edward had come to think of Harry as being part of the family, no matter how contrived that thought was, it was simple and made the most sense.

--

Outside the garden, a huge black dog laid under a bush. Blinking at the boy with the amazing metal arm, the dog wasn't exactly sure what or who the boy was, only, that that was the boy that he had seen with Harry Potter.

Growling, the black dog sniffed at the air, he had to get inside that house. But, how the hell was he going to do that without giving away his main goal? How was he going too…

Getting up, the dog limped towards the house, whimpering in pain as it came up the dirt path that led into the garden. The boy with the metal arm looked up from what he had been doing, his brief look of confusion cleared as he saw the pained dog.

"Hey buddy, are you hurt over there?" the boy asked, the dog sniffed and sat down, whining again. The boy shook his head and approached the dog, rag still in hand; reaching out with his flesh hand, the boy briefly pet the dog behind its ears.

"We have some scraps, I'll get them for you and when Mrs. Weasley gets back she can have a look at you, but…hmmm…its not my house so I can't take you inside…I know!" Edward grinned and approached a pile of wood that was being over grown by ivy and weeds. Clapping his hands, Edward transmutated the pile of wood and logs into a dog house painted white with green trim, it was huge inside and the weeds had been transformed into a soft bed of sorts.

"There we go, you can lie in there," Edward said before making his way back to the house. After several moments of finding some food fit for a dog, Edward returned to the garden and found the large black dog had taken its place inside the dog house that fit it perfectly. Edward put down the plate of food and the dog sniffed before eating.

"Wow, you're big," Edward said as he returned to his cleaning, "You remind me of a dog a friend of mine has, Winry – I probably shouldn't do this, but, I'll call you Den," Edward smiled, staring off into space. The dog, now Den, didn't really care about what the child was saying, he was close; that was all that mattered.

But, the child before him did interest him slightly, how could a kid that young be able to use wandless magic? It was something that might be worth looking into.

--

a/n – Okay, for those HP fan's who don't know much about FMA, Den is Winery's dog in the anime. So, go watch FMA, with the Alchemy and stuff, you may like it because you all ready like Magic if you are reading this.

Two, this chapter sets up my beginning of the plot that I can change later if I want too. I just need to figure out which one I want to do. But this can help with both beginnings of the plots I am thinking of.

Okay, and I do hope that the titles that I put of where we are when there is a scene change helps out. Since I have to go between two worlds, I find that it would break my brain if I tried to write Al in Amestris and then go back to Harry or Edward in England. I think that I may also try and keep one chapter in one world until I get to a point where both worlds converge and it is important to see where the plot is taking us.

I guess Al will just have to fight a few more Alchemists, blah, I can't write that!!

Ta,

Professor Know-It-All


	8. Interlude to a bigger plan

a/n – Sorry that I haven't updated this. But, I have been doing some thinking and it is really important for me to write this fic the way I intended. This means a high AU plot line for the Harry Potter universe. Therefore, I shant take any reviews that say "I liked it up to this point" and then have that person dump it because I decided to do something. As a writer, it is my prerogative to try out new things and explore this to my hearts content.

That said, I thank you.

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 8 - Interlude to a bigger plan**

**It was a dark and stormy Morning;** A golden eye opened as lightning struck against the filmy grey sky, this sparked a thunder clap in response. The boy snuggled under the covers once more. He wasn't exactly sure what time it was, but, all he knew was that he felt rather lethargic that morning.

From across the room, another boy was wide awake, there was no sleep in his green eyes as he stared at the ceiling of the orange bedroom. Harry was bored. It was six in the morning and he knew that the rest of the house would wake at about seven; which left him with an hour to think in the quiet. He mostly thought about Edward Elric. The Alchemist hadn't exactly explained how he had made that dog house in the back yard, but somehow (and with much use of Puppy Eyes) had gotten Mrs. Weasley to let them keep the dog.

A large, grim looking dog that Edward had christened Den. Harry sat up and threw the covers off of his legs. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had gone and gotten their school books, well, she wasn't exactly sure if Edward would go to Hogwarts or not, Professor Dumbledore was to visit that evening and talk to Edward about it. But, Edward still had an aversion to magic, always trying to explain it away with science. Harry explained Alchemy as Magic. It was a hard compromise between them and the Alchemist, but they had reached one anyway.

Edward didn't ignore the magic, he just asked questions; where does it come from? How does it work? And so on and so on. Edward really was curious. Harry wasn't sure if he liked that or not. Sure, he too was curious, but not in the way that Edward was. He had gone through all of Harry's magic books from his prior two years and had borrowed the third year books from Fred and George. He could spend hours just reading, it was sickening!

Well, Harry decided that they needed to get Edward away from the books and onto a broom. Having a mock Quidditch Game might help Edward to relax around magic, at least, maybe a little bit.

With that thought firmly in his head, Harry went to take a quick shower, he'd talk to Ron about it later.

- - -

Snape and Lucius and spent that last two days preparing; Snape for his classes and Lucius another sort of plan all together. Maybe Magic, as powerful as it was, wasn't the answer for this particular problem. Maybe, what they need was an Alchemist. What they needed was an Alchemist of probable skill; one that didn't need to use arrays in order to make the Alchemy work.

The leather bound journals was the one thing of his father's that Lucius had kept after the old man had bit the dust; they were written in Latin and didn't take him long to translate. He even double checked himself by have Severus looking it over as well. The journals depicted several arrays but the Latin Encryption was the most mysterious: _A Verbis Legis Non est Recedendum - (_There must be no departure from the words of the Law).

What law was the book talking about anyway? It didn't make sense to him; it apparently hadn't made any sense with his father seeing as how his notes were all over the place concerning this encryption. That meant that he needed the boy.

--

Edward glared at the broom in his hands; "This is supposed to be fun?"

Harry, Ron, Ginny and the Twins gave each other a look.

"Er" Fred grinned, "Yeah."

"Right, so, what's the point of the game?" Edward asked.

"The point of the game," Ginny rolled her eyes, "is to have fun!"

"Ah," Edward nodded.

"Okay, so all you need to do is practice, we'll show you before we start playing," George said with a grin. The rest of that late morning was spent showing Edward how to fly on a broom, he was shaky at first but after a few circles around the glen, he was getting better.

They spent some time explaining the mock Quidditch game to Edward, it wasn't a real game since they didn't have enough players, but they played nonetheless. Edward was a Beater seeing as how he could bat the Bludgers far away. They played for what seemed to be hours before they were called in for lunch by Mrs. Weasley. In the end, they all decided that it was a draw.

Post-game lunch was a great affair; Edward was glad that he had done something that involved magic; he still wasn't sure how he got the broom to move. But it seemed to be something that some could do and some couldn't.

"I want to know how you made the dog house," Ginny said. Edward reached for his tea cup before explaining.

"I used Alchemy in order to make the dog house, the wood and grass was just there. I destructed the molecular levels before re-constructing it into the dog house," Edward replied.

"Sorry, mate," Ron blinked, "but can you explain that in English?"

"I made something take on another shape," Edward replied.

"Ah, that makes more sense then," Ron continued eating.

"Apparently," Edward smiled a little bit; his explanation was mostly based on what they called Transfiguration. Well, it was pretty close.

--

**Central City, Amestris**

Alphonse Elric knocked gently on the door that led to the antechamber of Roy Mustangs office. He poked his head into the room to see that Falman, Fury and Hawkeye busy with their paper work. Hawkeye looked up at the movement in the doorway before smiling.

"Alphonse, how are you?" she asked.

"Good, Lieutenant Hawkeye," Al smiled, "Is the Colonel in? I need to talk to him about something," he said, a light rosy color came to his cheeks. Riza smiled and nodded at him.

"He's in the office, he doesn't have a meeting till three, so you have him for a while," she said. Al sighed and made his way towards the closed door of the inner office sanctum of Roy Mustang, wanna-be-Fuhrer and Flame Alchemist. Currently, the man was snoring at the desk, Al knocked on the wall, and this made the man's dark blue eyes snap open.

"Ah, Edward, finally made it back did you?" Roy yawned widely.

"Sir, I'm Alphonse," the boy reminded the older man. Roy nodded his head as he waved the younger Elric brother into the office.

"Sorry about that Elric, I keep forgetting. So, what has brought you here?" Roy asked.

"I've found something out, and you're slip up has just made me think that you know more than you're leading onto," Al replied, he crossed his arms and for a moment Roy could say that it was Edward that was standing in front of him.

"How much help can I be to The Reborn Alchemist?" Roy asked.

"I want to know if I have an older brother, I was told that you had the answers," Al replied.

"No doubt by Armstrong," Roy sighed, "I can only tell you but on one condition," Roy gave the boy a hard look. Al nodded his head letting Roy know that he was ready to hear him out.

"The current Government system is terrible, I want to reform it, I need to become Fuhrer," Roy said.

"No doubt to peek under the women's tiny mini0skirts," Al muttered. Roy ignored the boy and continued on, "If you help me become ruler of Amestris, I will tell you everything you want to know,"

"Nothing can be gained with first giving something of yourself," Al nodded his head, "I agree, what do you want me to do…?"

Roy smirked, it was only a matter of time now…

--

AN – Okay, this chapter sucked ass, like totally! I don't know Al's formal Alchemist name, I don't even know if he did become a State Alchemist in order to find his brother or reclaim his memories. In this rendition, he doesn't know (until now) about Edward and will help Roy out in order to find the truth. The Truth always was something weird when it came to the Elric Brothers. Anyway, I thought that _The Reborn Alchemist_ was a great name for Alphonse.

Ta,

Professor Know It All


	9. The Power of the Reborn Alchemist

**Alchemical Lane **

**Part 9 – The Power of the Reborn Alchemist**

**--**

**"****People cannot gain anything without sacrificing something. You must present something of equal value to gain something. This is the principle of equivalent trade in alchemy.****'' - Fullmetal Alchemist **

**--**

**Fuhrer Bradley sat at his desk, nodding off. **It was a cold day in Central; drifts of snow were beginning to pile up on the window sill outside the office. The wind was picking up and the news was informing everyone that a blizzard would be upon them before the day was out. All in all, it was a terrible day to be spying from this particular corner of the roof where no one would think to look.

Alphonse Elric had his hood around his head held there by a long red scarf he had picked up because of the terrible weather. The bright red stood out against the gusts of white around him. But, he didn't care. Wearing the bright red jacket gave him a sense of…well…something akin to comfort. Not because it fit or was just great to wear, but it reminded him of being safe. That was why he wore it.

From this corner he could see into the office, the most he saw of the Fuhrer was his feet that he had flopped onto the desk; he would wait till the man left before breaking into the office. At least, that was the plan. He hoped it was as simple as Mustang made it out to be.

_"So, do you have a plan?" Al asked._

_"Of course I do," Mustang smirked with that all knowing smirk. The one that always made Edward want to put his fist in the mans face. _

_"Well, are you going to tell me or what?" Al sighed, he really hated playing these games with Mustang. _

_"Alphonse, I won't pretend that this will be a piece of cake. It won't be, if this gets out, we're both dead," Mustang warned. _

_"I understand, sir," Al nodded._

_"Okay, here is what you have to do…"_

Which lead him here. Sitting out in the cold, frosty morning just waiting for the man to leave. He might even have to wait here all day. That was not a pleasant thought. He didn't want to freeze anything off, not after all that he had apparently went through to get his body back. He didn't remember, but that was the most Mustang would give to him.

Mustang did tell him the name of his older brother, Edward Elric. They had went in search of the Philosophers Stone in order to get back to normal. Now, he had to help Mustang reach the ultimate in power over Amestris. Sighing, he watched the white puffs from his warm breath turn frigid. He wondered how well Mustang would do as Fuhrer.

As if he had been sending his wishes towards the man Bradley suddenly took his feet off the desk. Alphonse wondered fi this was a fluke, but, he felt better as the man came into view, put on his heavy coat and opened the door.

Through the glass, Al couldn't really understand what the man had said, but it looked as if he would be gone for a while. Al hoped this as he stepped closer. He slipped suddenly, catching himself on the ledge of the building, he looked down. Two soldiers stood below the ledge, neither looked up, they were both enjoying a smoke.

Gritting his teeth he gripped the edge with both hands and pushed himself up till he regained his footing. Taking it slowly, he inched his way to the window. It was locked, but a quick transmutation had the wall to the side of the window open into the room. He put the wall back to normal before he started snooping.

Once he found the evidence Mustang seemed so enthused about, they would be able to make their move and he would learn more about Edward.

_Let's hope this works. I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't._

--

_The blond haired boy was awfully confident; the smirk on his face spoke volumes. He stood several yards away from a man in a blue uniform. Around them were other men that also wore the same uniform. _

_"What are you going to do?" he asked, his voice sounded a bit unlike himself. He looked down and saw that he was encased in gray armor. Not exactly sure what was going on, he turned to the blond boy. _

_"What do you think!" the boy was yelling, "I'm going to put my fist in his face!" the boy seemed terribly pissed off at this other man that Alphonse couldn't get a correct read on. Alphonse watched as the two squared off, they were going to fight._

_The other man snapped and flame streaked towards the boy; they were going to fight, and they were going to use Alchemy. Al took cover, this was WAY too dangerous. _

_He watched as the boy and the man went at it as if their lives depended on it; it was at this moment that Al found something awfully familiar about this scene, it was as if he should know it, it was as if he had been there himself but…_

Chirping of birds interrupted his dream and he came awake within moments. Sun streamed into the bedroom as if the snow from earlier had never fallen to the world. Only slush remained and my evening even that would be gone.

Alphonse sighed, thinking back on the dream (or was it a memory?) he decided that the boy in his dreams had to be Edward; at least, it felt right to call the boy that. Smiling, at least a little, Alphonse shoved the heavy comforter off, it fell to the floor and he picked it up to lay it straight on the bed.

He wondered to himself on Edward's cleaning habits as he made his way to the bathroom. The great part about being a State Alchemist was that you were given your own apartment in Central. Thinking of that, he needed to get what he had found to Mustang, but, he had wanted to read it all first. It wouldn't do for Amestris to make war with Xing. Even if the county lay many thousands upon billions of miles away from Amestris, over a huge desert and an ocean, Bradley had almost gotten an army together to make war.

Bad, bad move; No one in Amestris would want that. It meant high taxes and less food. Some places were all ready having a hard enough time with both.

That probably meant that if Mustang made his move, opposed the war and lowered taxes (well, enough so that people actually thought he was cool) then maybe his rule wouldn't be so bad.

"At least," he muttered as he stepped under the hot water, "I hope,"

--

a/n – Okay, sorry for the short chapter. The next one we shall get back to Edward. I just thought that it would be better if I separated the chapters like this so that I can work on one plot and then the other, that way I am not trying to work both and get myself mixed up. Well, I hope you liked it.

Ta,

Professor Know It All

--

**Omake 1 – **

**Ed and Al stood over the stove. Not at all sure what it did or how it worked. It had lots of knobs and do-dads behind the burners. Scratching his head, Edward pushed a button before he clapped his hands and touched the stove. **

**It blew up in their faces. **

**"Well," Alphonse coughed, "That's one way of burning up Professor's house," **

**"Ah, do you think she'll be mad?" Edward cringed at the thought.**

**"Er –what do you say we just put it back together?" Al asked.**

**A clap and blue light filled the room and the stove was back to normal. From behind them someone clapped. **

**That someone was Professor; "It's a good thing I can write you two as having Alchemy in my world, I'd have killed you if you couldn't," she shrugged. **


	10. Fullmetal, Meet the Death Eaters

A/n – I don't know WHY I am writing this at Church

A/n – I don't know WHY I am writing this at Church. But here I am at NLC at an empty table and no snacks. Damn! Ah well, please enjoy the chapter. And, because this is CHAPTER 10 – I thought that I would try and make it extra long, ain't ya happy?

**A shout out to EVERYONE that reviewed. I won't make a list and bog down the chapter, I really hate doing that. Blah!**

**--**

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 10 – Fullmetal, Meet the Death Eaters**

**--**

In hind site, the worst thing one could say was "What's the worst that can happen?" in this case, it has to be the stupidest six words that one can say when one has go running after an angered teen after said angered teen has found out that the only way to getting home involves information that said teen cannot ever get his hands on in the first place.

Really, when one thinks about it, running after an angered teen and throwing back the words "What's the worst that can happen?" has got to be the most redundant thing that Harry has probably ever done in his thirteen short years on being in existence. However, these sorts of things only come to pass at the most inopportune moment.

The above mentioned inopportune moment just so happened to be moments after he found the blond boy punching a tree with his flesh hand, not caring about the pain, tears running down his eyes. Edward was muttering something about someone called Alphonse. How he had tried and had obviously failed.

And as these moments go; no matter how clichéd, this is the part where the popping sounds of people Apparating in sounded through the quiet glen (where just hours before, they had played Quidditch). There were four in all, each with long black cloaks and skull like masks that covered the upper part of their faces.

It was a split second before Edward was aware of the new visitors; apparently someone had set out wards even this far into the forest and there were shouts from the house. However, as Harry fumbled for his wand, and Edward tried to get a read, both boys' were hit with spells that made them fly backwards.

Harry lost himself in darkness, his last known thoughts being that he hoped someone got there to rescue them before it was too late. Edward, on the other hand, fared better, the spell didn't knock him out but on the other hand it did make him a bit fuzzy. He stumbled to his knees as the men converged on him and not Harry. Maybe that was a good thing; after all, Harry Potter was the Savior of the Wizarding World.

Rushing forward, Edward punched upwards with his automail fist and caught the man in the nose, the mask crumbled before him and Ed got a clear view of white hair and blue eyes. The man snarled and stumbled back. It was seconds after this that several spells shocked Edward's system and he wasn't impervious to falling unconscious either.

The man that Edward had punched spelled his nose back to normal; at least he wouldn't have a hooked nose such as Snape. Speaking of which, he turned to the man in question who by this time had gathered the Elric boy up into his arms.

"Let's go," Snape said simply before he Apparated off. The rest followed. They left Harry Potter to his dreams in the dew dampened grass of which would wake him only an hour later.

--

**Snape Castle, Bulgaria**

Edward woke to a white ceiling; golden eyes blinked the fog away so that he may see clearer. He lay in a bed that was plain white, in fact his entire room was plain, even the stone was plain gray. Boring colors actually, but it was better than finding himself in a damp dungeon. There always had to be a bright side to things, Alphonse wouldn't want him to meander in his grief of not being able to get home.

Sitting up, he finally saw what else was in his bedroom. The pine floor was covered in a rug that looked to have seen better days, across from the bed was a desk with a book shelf above it with several books, upon closer inspection, Edward found that these books were on alchemy. To the left and middle of the room, situated between bed and desk was the window, it had no apparent lock but would not open, the glass didn't even shatter when he punched it. At the same location, but across from it was the door that led outside his room. It had no lock, but Edward couldn't get it open.

He found a wardrobe that was filled with clothing, the same as he wore, the same black pants, elevator shoes, black muscle shirt and the pull over jacket. The only thing different was that his red jacket also hung up in there, it was bright red though, as if it had been newly made. However, the embroidery on the inside was still there.

_To Edward from Winry_

"I hope she's all right," Edward shook his head. In the drawers he found underwear, pj's and socks. Next, he discovered the bath room. It was simple with a shower stall that had nothing that separated him from the toilet or the sink and mirrored area. Soft towels and wash cloths had been supplied to him. He also found a brush for his hair.

"Well, I wonder what they think they'll get by this," Edward scratched the back of his head. This was just too weird, why would he be kidnapped and given such a great bedroom? It went against the norm, that was for sure.

--

**Weasley Family Home, Otter St. Catchpole, England**

"What do you mean he's gone?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

"Some men in dark robes took him," Harry replied, he had run back to the Weasely's as soon as he had awoken, just in time to find that Dumbledore had stayed for a spot of tea.

The family was in an uproar, for two reasons, one) Dumbledore didn't seem at all concerned and 2) Harry had been in danger. Of course, they didn't like the fact that Edward had been kidnapped, but at this point there was nothing that they could do. Apparation trajectory's were a fishy thing to track even after seconds of someone Apparating away, however, it was impossible when there had been an hour in between the apparition being implemented.

Of course, no one thought to tell Harry this, except for Ron who had somehow retained this information for some odd reason. Not that it would help now, Edward was gone and Dumbledore wasn't doing a damn thing about it.

Cursing angrily, Harry ran upstairs to the room he shared with Ron. Edward was his friend, if it had been Ron that had been kidnapped, they would have done something. But no, just because it was a boy that called himself an Alchemist and was from a place called Amestris – well, he couldn't possibly be important and so it was all right to throw said child, said Alchemist, said friend, to the werewolves.

"Don't worry, Ed," Harry muttered, "I'll get you back,"

--

**Snape Castle, Bulgaria**

Snape, Karkaroff and Malfoy sat in front of the fire in dark green winged back chairs, each had a cup of tea in one hand and sipped while the silence around them became more oppressive at the moment. A popping sound and a tug on the hem of his robe had Severus looking down and Toby, his head house elf.

"Yes?" he intoned.

"Awaken the boy has," Toby replied with a bow.

"Very well, serve him some food," Severus replied. Toby bowed and popped away to do his master's bidding.

"Severus," Karkaroff's voice was deadly in the silence, "What exactly can this boy do?" he asked.

"He's an Alchemist that doesn't need the use of transmutation circles," Severus replied.

"You have seen this?" Karkaroff raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I have been spying on the boy since he arrived at the Weasely's," Severus nodded, he sipped some of the tea that was by now cold. He put the tea cup aside. He would have to remember to make the cups retain the heat in the future.

"Will he be able to bring our Lord back?" Karkaroff was just full of questions this night.

"We think he will be able too, given the right information and motivation," it was Malfoy who answered this time.

"Is that so?" a raised eyebrow in the light haired Wizard's direction.

"Indeed," from Snape.

"Very well then," the man nodded. If these two had things well in hand, than who was he to argue?

"Good, tomorrow I shall take care to inform the boy of his use," Severus said.

The fire before them glowed merrily as the silence once again descended upon the three.

--

Meanwhile, Edward was flipping through the books, a tray sat on the desk. The food was gone as soon as the house elf had left it, but the tea pot was self refueling, Edward sipped at the tea while he read. None of the books were ones he had read at home in Amestris, but, it was nice to read just about Alchemy and not about Magic.

Still, this whole thing wreaked. It smelled funny and Edward was sure that his kidnappers wanted more from him than ransom. He bet his life on the fact that they wanted what he knew Alchemy wise. Why else would he be kidnapped, put in a room that had walls and windows that could reconstruct themselves in less than a second and have at his personal use Alchemy books that he had never seen before?

Yes, there was something more here than Roy Mustang and his mini-skirt campaign.

--

A dull red light shone in the early morning gloom.

The sun had not yet risen over the snowcapped Bulgarian mountains when Severus Snape entered the room. From the single ever-burning candle, he saw in a moment that the boy was not in bed where all boys should be at this time. So, as dark eyes swept the room to find his missing ward, Severus found him sitting at the desk, bent over a book and snoring lightly. Blond hair had somehow fallen from the single braid the boy wore and now hung limply in his face.

Severus shook his head; the boy had probably been studying all night, he should have checked earlier, after he had told the house elves to put a mild sedative in the tea. Quietly he closed the door as he now fully stood in the room. He waved his wand and a fire place transfigured itself by the bedside at an angle where the bed would get the most heat.

Severus then went over to the boy, waved his wand again and Elric was now dressed for bed. He took up the boy easily, despite the metal limbs, Elric was very light. Frowning softly, Severus put the boy in bed. Elric settled down and nuzzled his pillow.

He was adorable. Severus could imagine having a boy just like Edward, except his son would have had red hair and green eyes, just like his mother's. It was too bad that Lily decided to marry that lard of a man, Potter. He was sure that he would have won her if Potter hadn't decided that he absolutely, positively had to have her. The whole thing was a mess and a half.

However, Severus couldn't ignore the family features the boy shared with his (Severus') Great Aunt Trisha; even if they were related or not, it pulled on his heart, Trisha had been kind to him. Sighing, Severus stood and tucked the boy under the covers. The boy held their secret to reviving their Dark Master. But, Severus didn't want the boy to die afterwards, no, he was too….

What was the word?

Special, for that doom.

He also looked liked Trisha; he looked like his second cousin who was also named Edward. There was no denying it – but, he would have to make sure that they were related. Even if by some odd chance that it wasn't by much, Severus didn't want to see this child that he hardly knew become another statistic in the Wizarding War.

--

A/N – I know that I wanted to make this longer, but there was no point and that seemed as good as any point to leave off of. My only annoyance is that I made Snape mushy! He's supposed to be some hardened bastard with nothing but his own whims to look out for, but no, somehow he became this loving father figure and…SHIT!


	11. Broken Shelves of Books

**Alchemical Lane – Broken Shelves of Books**

--

**Xing…**

**It was a country full of mountains, fresh streams and villages. The army stronger than ten thousand of Amestris' own; **the Emperor even more powerful than the Fuhrer Bradley himself; so then, if this was true, if Xing was this all powerful, all mighty, all knowing empire…than why in all the eight hells of Amestris did Bradley want to make war with above empire?

It was at times like these that Roy Mustang wished he had thought up this plan sooner; he couldn't let this happen, Amestris would be wiped off the map, for good. Their army and Alchemists would be scattered to the winds, hunted down like rabid dogs and killed because of their science. It was utterly sickening. Just the thought of such a…rancid genocide made him want to puke.

In a Colonel-er-ly way of course.

Riza Hawkeye entered the office with papers in her arms; she set them on the desk for him to sign away the rest of the afternoon. It was at such times that Roy could think, now, the signing of his name was more habit and so all he had to do was scan the documents and initial where appropriate. All the while planning his next move; He would have to be swift if he wanted to get a hold on Amestris before Bradley started his war.

Which really didn't make any sense; Bradley didn't like war and would only declare it when it was no longer within his power to make a choice. It was really quite surprising when one thought about, it was as if now, that man was possessed or something. At least all of his notes pointed in that direction.

Riza put a cup of fresh coffee on his desk. Roy smiled up at her, he winked at her as she left for the outer sanctum.

--

He pulled out the pocket watch and opened it for the time. It was late, it was about time he be in bed but for the life of him he couldn't sleep. That was probably why he found himself in the library after hours. His only light coming from the gas powered lamp. Several books that mentioned the Philosopher's Stone in front of him. However, the one tome that he had been trying to read by lamp light was nothing but arrays for transportation. It was older than Alphonse himself and that was saying something. At least the language of Amestris hadn't really changed, Al replaced old words with the more modern ones and that made reading the old tome possible.

_In Alchemy, everything is done by giving something up. Whatever that is has always been ruled by the array the Alchemist in question has chosen to use for their use. In this case, the Transportation Array chooses to drop the user in random places or times periods. The array will work like this no matter how many times one uses it till finally, you may end up where you began. _

_However, it is all pure chance._

Alphonse shook his head; if this would get him to his brother, than how many times, how many years, how many failings would he have to take till he finally found Edward? Whoever Edward was, he'd have to help Mustang become Fuhrer to find out anything. Of course, he could always just live as he had. Sure, Al knew that he'd know that he had had an older brother that probably did…older brother things.

Maybe Edward helped him up from the mud when they were little, or maybe he protected him from bullies, maybe Edward insisted on having a dog over a cat, maybe Edward got him a drink of water in the middle of the night, or went with him to the out house when it was pitch black outside. Would Edward have read him a book, or snuggled with him after a particularly mad nightmare? What was Edward like as a big brother?

Al wanted to know, he could feel his heart beat faster just at the thought of the boy with gold hair and amber eyes. He didn't know exactly what feeling he associated with the boy. The boy he had started calling Edward. But, it felt like love. It felt like what Winery had explained to him when she told him she was getting married to some guy. She never said anything about his missing brother; Al assumed that was because she thought Edward would never be back again, whatever that meant. It felt as if Edward was alive…someplace. Trying to get back but couldn't.

That was the most puzzling thing, really, he couldn't explain how he KNEW things! How he hated not having an explanation!

--

It was raining – hard.

The boy stood in the rain, dressed in red and white with his dark hair fell into his eyes limply, which had him pushing it aside every other moment. Lin Yao sighed as he realized that he wouldn't be getting anywhere unless he actually found his own lodgings. It was just so much simpler when Ran Fan or Fu where around. But Fu had had an accident and they had to separate on the road.

Lin Yao had told them to catch up when they could. In the mean time he would have to make it on his own. The first order of business, food, and then he would sneak into the library, and not just any library – but the library reserved especially for Alchemists.

--

It was midnight by the time Alphonse gently laid the book onto the glossy table, before banging his head hard onto the surface next to the book. He hadn't found another source that could tell him much on the transportation arrays. Which pissed him off to no end; sure, he didn't know much about this so called brother of his, but where his mind doubted, his heart led.

A note of disturbance from above didn't make him aware of the visitor until he perceived the intruder was right above him. Not moving, Al lay still as he heard the footsteps come closer. He closed his eyes, if it was someone he knew…

_But the footsteps aren't Hawkeye's or anyone from Mustangs office! And all of the librarians went home long ago…_

Thoughts racing, Al listened as the intruder jumped from the railing above and onto the table, softly, Al note, before rooting through the books Al had laid upon the table. Al was poked in the head, but he didn't react. He had perfected this, he knew, no one knew if he was feigning sleep or actually sleeping.

The intruder didn't say anything as he flipped through pages, took books off the shelf and threw them in random places. Al opened one eye to locate the other. From the lamp light, he saw a boy that could be about as old or older than himself. The boy definantly wasn't Amestrian either. He had darker hair and eyes that went to a slight point. He was from Xing, event he clothing gave him away.

A book thrown his way, to land short of his position gave Alphonse the chance to rise from his chair; "Who are you and what are you doing here?" he asked coldly. This boy was no Alchemist; it was against the law for non-alchemist's to be in this particular library.

His words had surprised the boy who had thought the other asleep after a hard night of studying. He stood and turned quickly, with no warning he threw the book in his hand at Alphonse, who stepped out of the way. The book flashed by his head, it missed by an inch.

"I'll ask you once again, who are you and what are you doing here?" Alphonse once again aired the fact that he was upset by the others presence.

"It is no business of yours," the boy replied in an uppity manner, a manner that told Alphonse that the boy was just nervous that he had been caught off balance.

"I am a State Alchemist, you are my business," Alphonse replied evenly. At this the other gave Alphonse the finger before trying to dart by to freedom. Alphonse held out his arm and pushed the boy back. However, the boy jumped onto the table and kicked out at Al's head. Alphonse ducked and brought his hands up for another attack. It came as he had anticipated; he grabbed wrists in his hands and threw the boy into a wall of books. Heavy books ands shelves fell to the ground, littering the Xing Civilian in an array of paper.

The boy took a moment to clear his head before he growled and launched himself at his attacker. Alphonse blocked the round-house kicks and punches. After he had been found to have 'amnesia' – Izumi Curtis had taken him in and had 're-trained' him. She said that in order to train the mind, one must train the body. They spent hours sparring, he had spent more hours running fifteen miles and doing a hundred sit up or something else around those lines.

Now, as he pitted himself against this boy who knew a form of martial arts; Alphonse thanked Izumi-Sensei for her determined training schedule. Alphonse knew that if he hadn't spent three years with her, training himself from the beginning, that he wouldn't have stood a chance against the Xing boy.

Alphonse blocked a punch before he took this chance to put in one of his one, the boy took it in the solar-plex and stumbled back. Alphonse advanced, now attacking faster than even the boy had. It was a very common attack in hand to hand battle. Attack your opponent; force them to back into a corner before going in for the kill.

"_I'M GOING TO PUT A FIST IN HIS FACE!!"_

The words echoed in his head, but he paid them no heed, if he had, the Xing boy would have taken advantage and advanced his own attack once again. As it was, they were both doing a fantastic job at trading off the attacks. Alphonse caught a foot headed for his middle; he turned in a full circle before letting go. There went another wall of books, which would make five so far in their fight. He would have to make sure to fix it before he left.

However, it looked as if the dark haired fighter had had enough. He gave Alphonse the general gesture of "go screw yourself" before he leapt onto the balcony above and ran out an open window. A window that Alphonse guessed had also been the boy's way in.

Shaking his head and not deeming the boy important enough to chase after, Alphonse turned to re-modeling the library. He fixed the shelves with simple alchemy before he spent the next four hours re-organizing the books. He found that he wouldn't sleep that early morning and decided that as soon as it was a decent hour for normal people to be up and around, he would pay a visit to Colonel Mustang.

--

Ran Fan looked more like she fitted in than the Prince did. She wore a simple brown skirt, sandals and a yellow blouse with long, billowy sleeves that hid her knife collection where she could easily reach it.

She glared at her Prince as he joined her at the table in the hotel that they had agreed upon at the earlier gathering. He gave her a smile; "It's a bit soon to see you," he said.

"Grandfather healed faster than we anticipated," Ran Fan replied.

"Good," Lin Yao replied.

"And you ruined our chances of actually finding any information. I have just been by the Central Alchemist Library – they've made their security tighter than we had heard," Ran Fan now glared, her eyes promising pain if his excuse wasn't what she liked. Lin Yao knew that she would hit him, and hard, if he said that wrong thing.

"I'm sorry, Ran Fan, I jumped the gun, so it seems," he shrugged. But, he looked contrite and that was apparently all that Ran Fan had wanted in the first place.

"Please, leave the sneaking around to me, you really aren't good at it," Ran Fan sighed.

"Whatever you say," he grinned, and then he ordered breakfast. Some was sent up to the room where Fu was now resting.

"Did you find out anything from last night?" Ran Fan asked as their eggs and toast was being settled down on the table between them.

"No, but I did run into an Alchemist, he was pretty good. I have bruises just from him," Lin Yao shook his head.

"Maybe that would teach you to plan and not just jump in head first," Ran Fan smirked.

"Ha. Ha. Ha," Lin Yao mock-glared at her. However, she was still amused.

--

a/n – Okay, just so that you all know. I am making leaps and bounds in the characters of Lin Yao, Ran Fan and Fu. So, if there is anything that I am missing, please inform me of it so that I may make corrections in my future writing. I also hope that this chapter was long enough for you. I needed Alphonse to get more interaction and Lin Yao popped up and demanded to be in the story. So, I shall safely say that while his intentions of finding and processing of the Philosophers Stone is his main reason for being here, things might change by the end. After all, Amestris may go to war with Xing…

ah, well, you know what I mean.

Ta,

Professor Know It All

**_With much thanks to Toushiro1310 for her wonderful and stimulating conversations; It has helped me much with the creative process for this chapter!_**


	12. Blood and Coffee Redux

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 12 – Blood and Coffee**

**He had been lead down to some under ground laboratory.** However, it wasn't anything that he had seen back home or even during WW2 of England. The Time he had been in before he used the Transportation array to get to this era. A man in black robes, with shoulder length greasy hair had his back to Edward as he walked in.

"Nice place you have here," Edward said calmly. How were you supposed to open a conversation with a kidnapper that treated you, well…well? Edward felt like he was in the middle of the ocean, and drowning because of it.

The man in question turned to him, his skin was paler in the torch light of the subterranean laboratory; "There you are Elric," Severus Snape said in a tone that was light, well, for this man at least.

"So I am, what of it?" Edward asked, his white gloved hands went into pants pockets, he stood nonchalantly in front of the man, without his red coat, Edward looked a bit out of his element to Severus. But, he could hardly blame the child.

"This, just so happens to be a potion of magnitude that no one but myself has been able to master it," Severus explained.

"Really?" Edward sounded curious. Potions, from what he had read, sounded more like Chemistry; a nice scientific antidote to unlimited power of magic. Where there were rules that governed his use of Alchemy, Magic seemed to be that thing of which most Alchemists could never achieve.

It was total power without sacrifice.

Sacrilege.

"What does it do, exactly?" Edward asked, stepping closer to the man who moved out of his way to give a better view to the caldron atop a controlled fire.

"I have suspected for some time now that somehow our families are related, I am attempting with this potion to find the facts," Severus replied.

"What do you need to do? Get my blood and call up demons?" Edward asked.

"Magic does not work like that, only Muggles with their occultism idea's call upon things that do not exist," Severus replied.

"Well, seeing as how I'm atheist, it really doesn't matter now does it?" Edward smirked.

"All you need to do is allow me a single drop of blood, you can do it yourself if you like," Severus said.

"That's all is it? I suppose it can't be that bad," Edward said more to himself than the man that might or might not be some…Uncle? Father? Older brother?

_Bah to it all. It'll humor him and maybe I can get some information on why he kidnapped me in the first place. If he really just wanted my blood, he could have done it back at the Weasely's._

Edward ungloved his hands. The metal glowed in this dank light, but if the man reacted to the oddness of this limb, he didn't show it. For which Edward was glad for, he hated being rejected he covered it up by fighting and rejecting authority. Snape handed him a needle and Edward held his flesh hand over the pot and pricked his skin.

As if in slow motion, the blood trickled from the wound and down the needle before it took the long plunge to the gurgling brew below. With that one drop the glop turned a light purple and smelled of rotten, mashed potatoes.

"Yuck!" Edward drew away. Sucking at his pricked finger he watched as Snape approached the pot and look in. When he looked at the boy, he seemed pleased. But, Edward couldn't figure out why.

"It is as I thought," he said simply, "We are related,"

"How and why did you kidnap me in the first place?"

"I wanted control of the situation. We had to do this privately so that we can take out time to plan our next step," Severus replied.

"What next step?"

"The next step of restoring Lord Voldemort," Severus replied, looking quite and utterly pleased with himself.

Edward blinked.

"Who is Lord Moldewarts?"

--

It had taken several hours for Snape to explain everything to Edward. He was told things that Edward didn't know just by reading a copy of the History of Magic. Most of it Edward thought was bull shit, to be honest, how could someone throw the killing curse, get it blocked and not die from it? The logic didn't compute.

Now, the two sat in a small and casual dinning room where roast beef, sprouts and other fine delicacies that Edward hadn't a chance to try was being served. Edward had rejected milk and was surprised when the house elf came back with Pumpkin Juice and not water like he had thought. He would have to get the recipe for this before he left for home, he liked it, a lot.

"So, what can an Alchemist like me be of any help to you lot? From what I know, it's sounds as if this Order of the Phoenix and the Death Eaters will be at each others throats anyway," Edward was saying as he shoveled down some meet and potatoes.

"True, but both factions have its reasons for the war," Severus replied.

"So, what made you join up with the Death Eaters, anyway?"

Severus wasn't expecting that question, but in retrospect he should have been. He watched the boy eat for a long moments before he decided to answer, and be truthful. After all, they were related, even if remotely.

"I was in love," Severus said. Edward looked up.

"She was beautiful, kind, generous and she treated me better than anyone ever had. It took me seven years to ask her out, to marry me right then and there. That I loved her with my whole heart…" he trailed off. The pain from the rejection became acute and he felt short of breathe because of it.

Edward sat there, he hadn't stopped eating, but he was prepared to forget the words if Severus so much as hinted that he didn't want it talked about. But, he had to go on. This would be the one and only time he could do it.

"I didn't know what I was doing then, it's funny how the law affirms a Wizard of being of age at seventeen, when we are still young and stupid, awkward in our thoughts and bodies," he shook his head, "She rejected my proposal, and told me of her love for Potter. James Potter, the perfect Prefect and Head Boy. She said that he had grown on her and that over the past two years she had grown to love him unconditionally," he sipped from his wine glass.

Edward glanced at him, as Severus stared at the candle before him, Edward wondered if the man would go on with his story. Love was powerful, Edward knew, it made people do things; terrible things for the right reasons or terrible things out of jealousy. It truly didn't matter.

"I joined the Death Eaters out of the compulsion to somehow win her back. Protect her, the way she was aligning herself would mean her death," Severus said, anger clouded his words like blood dripping from the fangs of a Chimera. Still, Edward didn't say a thing, he had the feeling that Severus Snape, his sudo-Uncle, was giving him a clearer picture than anyone else that might have boasted of being the man's friend.

"in the end, my Lily died, she died protecting Harry James Potter," Severus ended. He slumped in his chair, just thinking. Edward blinked, his plate was empty by now and so he finished off his pumpkin juice and desert was served. Edward took his coffee black.

"Thank you," he said, "I knew that there had to be more to the picture than just what the Weasely's and Harry was getting on to but they never could tell me all of it," Edward said. Severus just sat back with his tea.

"Now, the question is, who was in the right and who was in the wrong? I don't just ally myself with anyone you know, Alchemy has its rules. I can't just clap my hands and touch a bunch of rock to make things happen. Human Alchemy is against out law, yet, I did it…" Edward knew that now it was his turn to confide in this man a secret just as big as what Severus had just told him. Edward wasn't one to ignore facts, they were family after all.

"I have a brother, his name is Alphonse, and he is about a year younger than me. When we were little, our father left us. We don't know why, we still don't. All we had then was our mother, Trisha Elric. She looked exactly like the lady you showed me in the moving photograph. But, she died to an illness that we didn't know about," Edward sipped at his coffee; Severus surreptitiously glanced at the boy.

"Well, after that Al and I decided to learn all that we could about Alchemy. We were well on our way, prodigies, they called us. We got Izumi Curtis to take us in and teach us all that she knew, while she did that, we searched for a way to bring back our mother. I always was a momma's boy; Alphonse always got me in trouble so that he could have time with her. Not that I cared, half the time I did deserve it," Edward smiled at that, just the thought of Alphonse made him excited.

Just as he hadn't interrupted during Severus' story, neither did Severus say anything. He did hope that Edward went on with the story.

"Well, after a couple of years we traveled back to Resembool, our home town. I was eleven, I thought I knew everything. I thought that we had found it. We used Human Transmutation a sin in our science, to bring back our mother. But, it didn't work. I understood then why. It did not bring back our mother because you can't bring back the soul of a dead person, you can only create a body. Everything else is unnatural. I lost my leg for that one, Alphonse lost his body. He would have also lost his soul if I hadn't bound it to a suite of armor, for that I lost my arm," Edward sat back in the chair, coffee forgotten. He unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off his bony shoulders to show the gleaming metal to Severus.

"This is called Automail; it took me a year to get back on my feet. The wires connect into the port on my shoulder and hip and then connect to my nerves. It's a pain to remove and to connect, but, it's nothing like what Al went through," Edward slipped his shirt back on.

"So, I suppose we aren't all that different," he shrugged.

"Perhaps not," Severus could only agree. There was a long, terse silence between the two while Edward wondered if he should air the question that hadn't been answered yet, even though he had asked plenty of times.

"So, what is it that you want me to do for this Lord of yours?"

"Have you heard of the Philosophers Stone?" Severus raised an eyebrow.

"It's exists!" Edward looked enthusiastically happy.

"It existed," Severus corrected.

"What do you mean?"

Severus felt a pang of regret in his heart as the boy's face fell; "There was an alchemist, Nicholas Flamel, he was successful in the making of the Stone. Only he knew how to do it, but, some two years ago it was destroyed," Severus explained.

"Damn," Edward glared at the floor. The Philosophers Stone was the highlight of any Alchemist gutsy enough o try and set out to make it. Not only could one turn one metal into gold, but, Edward knew that he would be able to use it to get his brother's body back. Only the Stone would let him perform Human Transmutation, again, without sacrifices.

"My brother and I had a bit of success in the making of a Philosophers Stone in our world," Edward muttered.

"What happened?" he didn't like the sound of of that.

Edward just shrugged, he didn't want to go into that.

"It's time for you to go to bed, we will talk more in the morning when one of my associates will come by with some material for your use," Severus said.

"Damn," Edward cursed, he never could sit still when something this big was on his mind.

"Come, if you do not sleep, that is fine, but, wondering the castle alone and at night may be dangerous," Severus said as he stood. Edward nodded and followed the man out of the dinning room.

--

a/n – Well, sorry that this chapter has no action. But I needed to set some things up – well – at least get things rolling. I really hate it when I take such a long time with the plot. At least, I still don't think it's going faster than I intended, I mean…I hate it when plots go fast, and I hate it when I slow mine down….er….

Okay, and I also needed to establish something between the two. Something that would make Edward trust Snape, well, at least those around Snape. But, you can never tell with Death eaters on the lose!

Ta,

Professor Know It All

I'd like to thank mrawgirl09, DemonRaily, Synnofthesun and Synn's cat for the corrections for this chapter. This is why I have to watch the anime again! thank you all!


	13. Alphonse Elric's unlucky Day

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 13 – Alphonse Elric's Unlucky Day**

**Alphonse was not a happy camper as he strode down the hallway of the Central Military Head Quarters.** Despite his mood, the day was bright, beautiful and for all intents and purposes – cheery. For once, Al wouldn't have minded if it had rained like it had all the past evening.

Weather was a curious thing. One moment it was beautiful, the next it was cold, after that it would be rain or sleet. Fickle was the sky, and terrible was his mood. Alphonse imagined a horde of tornadoes unwinding from the sky to destroy all in its path, just as he longed to do himself. Just to be rid of it, never to think of it again.

Roy Mustang looked away from the window as Alphonse slowly opened the door to the office. If there was one thing about Alphonse, he was more in control of his anger than Edward ever was. Not that Roy was going to tell the boy so. Alphonse was also taller, if there was one thing that Roy missed, it was egging the older (and smaller) brother on. He hoped Edward did come back home, if only to give him that small pleasure.

"Alphonse, please take a seat," Roy waved his hand. Alphonse nodded and shut the door.

"I heard about the library, good of you to fix those shelves," Roy said. Alphonse didn't question where Mustang got his information. It was just something that the man was able to do.

"I don't know who it was that I fought last night," Alphonse admitted.

"And I don't know who it was either, but whoever it was wanted something that the Military might have, or don't has, take your pick," Roy shrugged.

"My attacker wasn't Amestrian, that's for sure," Alphonse said.

"Hmmmm, no one was sure about our visitor. Except for the fact that he was just as good as you when it comes to hand-to-hand fighting techniques," Roy replied.

"It was a good thing that I stayed with Izumi-Sensei and relearned what I had forgotten," Alphonse said.

"Really, that's nice to know,"

"Still, I don't think he's whatever he passes himself off to be. It strikes me more or less that he has to be of some importance, I don't know why I feel that though," Alphonse looked out the window for long moments.

"Maybe he is important and somehow you knew this from your fight. It is amazing what one can learn from an opponent during a fight," Roy replied.

"What are you going to do about Bradley?" Alphonse asked.

"I am going to let him…destroy himself," Roy smirked happily.

--

Alphonse decided to peruse a random book store on his way home. He had put together a nice library on many Alchemical subjects. Subjects that he actually liked reading about, he had a nice five shelves on agriculture after meeting up with Fletcher and Russell Tringam. Again. It had been a weird meeting but in the end the Tringam Brothers had explained how they met, omitting his brother. He had to wonder if Mustang had some sort of conspiracy thing going on when it concerned Edward.

That was the only thing he knew about his brother, just his name.

It hurt.

--

The hot water fell in all the right places, steam fogged up the mirror and marred the air. His skin turned red and yet he just stood there, not exactly sure what to do or how to do. His job was getting dangerous, when he had signed up to become a State Alchemist; he had thought it the right thing to do. He saw how the military (though the good apples were far and few between) treated the people, how things became unjust because someone wanted money.

He knew what he was getting into when he left Izumi Curtis for the life in the States Order, and now, hope rearing he found that he and others were still being used for someone else's gain. But, when thinking upon it, it couldn't be any worse than what he supposed he had done before he lost his memories.

What if he used someone? What if he killed someone? What if he hurt someone?

What if…he was like all the others who were just using him as well?

Banging his head against the tile wall, Alphonse cringed at the thought. But, he couldn't find it within himself to regret this decision; somehow it felt right to be where he was. Besides, he agreed that Mustang would be a good ruler, why did he suddenly doubt this notion?

Forgetting to wash up, he turned off the water and stepped out of the shower stall, he threw a towel around his middle and took another one for his hair. As he stepped into the hall, he was quite surprised to see that the doors to the library across the way were open wide.

"Funny," he muttered, "I could have sworn I locked them," he shook his head as he poked his head into the room, he was just in time to see an intruder dressed in black with some sort of mask covering their faces make a quick escape out the window.

Alphonse scanned the shelves to see if the intruder had taken anything.

Several notes on the Philosophers Stone were gone.

--

"What do you mean someone took your research?" Riza asked.

**"I don't know who it was,"** Alphonse replied, **"He was wearing a mask and my notes are missing. I always keep them in a certain place so that I can find them, I know I didn't misplace them,"** he explained.

"All right, I'll inform Colonel Mustang," Riza replied.

**"Thank you, I'm sorry if I interrupted anything important,"**

"It's all right, Al,"

--

"What did you find?" Ling Yao asked as Ran Fan entered their hotel room.

"I found enough to start with," Ran Fan replied as she handed over the notes.

It looked like a jumbled mess, Ling Yao studied the pages for many moments before he blew out his breath in a frustrated sigh.

"I can't make head nor tails of this mess!"

"Maybe Grandfather can tell us what it means," Ran Fan suggested.

"He's sleeping, and he needs it," Ling Yao replied.

"Should we find an Alchemist?"

"What good would that do us? Everyone has their own way of taking notes, only the person who wrote this will be able to tell us what it is," Ling Yao replied.

"Should we get Elric to tell us then?"

"What are we going to do? Waltz in there and demand he tell us about his research?"

"Or we could kidnap him," Ran Fan shrugged.

"Ran Fan! I am surprised at you. That would start a war!"

"Not if no one knows and Elric doesn't tell," she shrugged.

"True…"

--

Alphonse secreted away the research on the stone that hadn't been taken. He closed the safe with an alchemical seal of his own design. Hopefully, no one would be able to find or open the safe without the particular array. At least, that was the theory.

Dressed in simple slacks and a button up shirt; Alphonse didn't know what hit him when something sharp was jabbed into his neck. Everything went dark seconds later.

--

Roy looked up as the door to his office banged open; a man in a red uniform saluted him; "Colonel Roy Mustang, you are hereby under arrest by order of the Fuhrer!" the man said by way of a greeting.

Mustang yawned boldly as other men in the same red uniform enter his office, confiscated his gloves and clapped him in irons; "By all means," he smirked as he was led away. His subordinates' mouths were hanging open as their leader was led out of the office.

Riza Hawkeye didn't look surprised at all; wasn't this what she had always been telling him? Sometimes men were just stupid and needed a kick in the balls every once in a while. She decided that she would give that kick to Bradley. No way in hell would she allow them to execute her leader.

"1st Lieutenant, what do we do now?" Breda asked.

"We go to plan e-alpha," Riza replied with narrowed blue eyes.

--

It was raining heavily as Havoc and Breda arrived at the house. However, it wasn't what they had been expecting. Not only had the door been kicked open, but thing lied on the floor in broken heaps. Pictures and books had been torn apart and even some of the walls had been deconstructed.

"Shit, who could have done this?" Havoc asked.

"Better question," Breda replied, "Who could have gotten the drop on the Reborn Alchemist, Alphonse Elric?"

"Hmmm…" Havoc muttered as he lit up, "Who indeed…"

--

"What do you mean he's missing?" he glared.

"He's gone. No one knows how or why, but the Reborn Alchemist has been kidnapped," was the reply. It wasn't the one that he had wanted.

--

A/N – YES! I'm finally done with this chapter! I am so happy! it was such a bitch to write! I know that this may seem short but I really wanted to get the Amestris plot going so I may do another chapter on Amestris before changing back over to Edward. And for those of you who wonder, yes, I have come upon a manga site that I can actually read. I am on chapter 47 and I think Ran Fan is going to die sometime soon. At least, I read that someplace else and…yeah…Sad, I think she's cool. Ah, I was planning on two kidnappings, but, this wasn't what I had been planning at all! Elric's, they get all the fun!


	14. A Hoard of Racoons

**Dedicated to Shiro!!**

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 14 – A Hoard of Racoons**

_"Brother! Brother!" _

_The light around him was so bright he couldn't see anything. But, he was afraid, he was deathly afraid and he wanted Edward. He wanted his brother to comfort him and keep him safe. _

_"Al! Al! Give him back!" _

_He could barely hear Edward calling for him; he could barley feel his brothers hand on his own, pulling him away from the nightmare in the light. _

_The next thing he knew – he was in a body of armor. Their failed transmutation had taken more from them than either had expected._

Upon awaking, Alphonse knew that something was wrong. The dream had been too real but reality fell upon his head as if someone had thrown a car on top of him. He found himself in a cabin, the normal sounds of the country side informing him that he had to be away from Central City. Across the one room cabin sat a man, a man that was spindly with a mustache and beady eyes.

"Ah," the man stood, "I see you're awake,"

"Who are you?" Alphonse asked, he found that he was tied with rope, fast, so that he couldn't wiggle around enough to get his hands together.

"You don't remember me?" the man asked, confused.

"I don't remember a lot of things," Alphonse smiled up at the man as if this situation happened to him all the bloody time.

"I am Yoki, don't you remember me from the coal mining town?"

"No, sorry," Alphonse shook his head.

"No matter," Yoki waved his hand as if it really didn't matter if Alphonse remembered or not.

"I would rather have the Fullmetal Alchemist, but you'll do," he said as an afterthought.

"Fullmetal? The Alchemist with the arm and leg of automail?" Al asked, blinking.

"Why yes! That little bastard took my title from me, I was about to be promoted as well," Yoki cringed at the memory.

Genuinely curious. "How'd he do it?"

"He tricked me, he made me write a letter that handed over all of my holdings to him, his gold bars that was a present had turned back into useless coal and then…there was a rebellion by the miners!" Yoki's voice had raised several octaves by this point and Al just wanted to cover his ears.

"That' just terrible," Alphonse shook his head.

"Isn't it though? But, I'm going to get my revenge on everyone, once the Fullmetal hears of his younger brother being in my hands, he'll come to rescue you and then I'll crush him like the little bug he is!" Yoki cackled madly at his plan.

Yoki grew despondent, "I shouldn't have said that,"

Alphonse sweat dropped – didn't the Fullmetal hate being called little by anyone? Al wasn't exactly sure what Yoki was saying till…

It clicked…

The Fullmetal Alchemist was…his…brother…?

"What the hell are you going on about? I am not related to the Fullmetal Alchemist!" Alphonse objected. This was just so confusing, sure, people had dropped hints…but…_How could I be so stupid!!_

"So, it is true, you don't remember anything before you and the Fullmetal claimed you're body from the beyond. Huh, and here I thought people were just talking shit," Yoki shook his head.

"Well," he smiled suddenly, "Now you know!"

--

Roy waited in the dank cell for his chance. If any of these men had been trained by him, they would have checked all of his pockets. Smirking, he sat on the bunk and waited for the perfect moment. There would be no chance in hell of him escaping if he was too early or too late.

He hoped that Bradley himself would come to see him; that would be his best chance. Not to mention that if Bradley actually made war where no war was wanted, he usurping Bradley basically gave him a free path to the throne. He would take it, he would use it and then…

_All female officers will be required to wear tiny minni skirts!!_

Amestris would be behind him every step of the way; his plan wouldn't fail!

--

Riza, Havoc and Breda watched the prison through their binoculars. Everything was in place for their rather small rebellion, but Riza hoped that she could at least protect Roy. It was the duty of the older sister to do so, and she would be damned before she let anything bad happen to her younger brother. Unless, of course, f it was by her own hand.

"We'll be able to get inside in two more hours," Breda announced.

"Good," was all Riza could think to say.

--

Ling Yao yawned, this was so stupid! Why was it that when he really needed an alchemist, there were none to be found? Though, he had to wonder why no-one bothered to clean house. On first site one would think that Alphonse Elric would be one of those people who are completely anal about things. A complete clean-freak. However, the house was nothing but messy.

Things had been strayed across the floor, glass strewn in places that would cut anyone without shoes. Pictures of people Ling didn't recognize had been smashed. Holes in the walls, almost as if someone had taken a sledge-hammer to the plaster in order to see what was behind the walls.

"Wait one moment…why would…??"

Ling had to admit it, even he could be slow at times, he just wasn't going to admit it aloud.

"Young Master!" Ran Fan entered the living room, she was holding a piece of parchment, it was open.

"You'd better read this…" she handed it over to him.

_Fullmetal Alchemist,_

_I have your brother. If you ever wish to see him alive, come to Dead Creek Desert. Don't bring the army, if you do he dies._

_Yoki_

Ling scratched that back of his head, "All right then, we have two options," Ling grinned at Ran Fan.

"We can let the army know and risk them cottoning on to us, or we can do this the old fashioned way and rescue our alchemist on our own,"

"I follow you," Ran Fan replied.

"Good, we'll get him ourselves," Ling's smile grew dangerous.

--

It was a piece of cake to walk into the prison.

It was a piece of cake to knock out a couple of guards and gain entry to the heavily protected cells.

It was a piece of cake to find Roy Mustang as well.

So, Riza wondered, when was the shit going to hit the fan. After all, one cannot have so many wins in a row before something went click and blew up in your face. Well, of course, as soon as Roy stepped out of the cell, the alarm went off, it wa blaringly loud.

"Nice to see you so soon," Roy smirked.

"Let's save the niceties for another time, Colonel," Riza glared. The two took down the hall at a dead run. They met Breda and Havoc at the end where the two locked everything down. They couldn't make out what any of the guards were yelling because of the alarm.

"Well, I think its about time to make like a raccoon and stink up the place," Havoc said.

"Don't you mean a skunk?" Breda asked.

"They would be expecting that!" Havoc grinned as he connected the last wire of his prison made bomb.

"All right ladies and gents, please, keep your arms and legs inside the car at all times, and if you have to heave, don't do it on my shoes!" Havoc announced.

The prison explained the huge hole in their wall on a faulty light bulb.

The prison explained the stink being that of over five thousand skunks having been buried under the prison nearly two thousand years before.

However, the theory that most people believed, one that was both responsible for both the huge wall and the stink, was the hypotheses that a hoard of rampaging Raccoons had attacked the prison for some odd reason that no one could rightly explain.

--

a/n – Okay, admit it….you want an update…do you really care how long it is??


	15. Mustang's Not So Brilliant Plan

**A/N - Sorry for not uploading for so long. Here is one that I hope you all like. **

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 15 - Mustang's not-so-brilliant plan!**

**Central, Amestris **

"What the hell did you think you were doing!?" Riza Hawkeye, face as dead panned as could be but voice, rather angry, didn't look over to Roy Mustang who sat, huddled in a brown overcoat, on the seat next to her. In the back seat, Havoc and Fuery sat quietly, their faces behind magazines but listening in on every word.

"I didn't think it'd fall apart that soon," Roy replied. He had all ready kicked himself, of course, he had thought of his own arrest and subsequent trial. He had planned out every detail for that outcome and Riza had done her job well.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"Don't worry about it, I have it all under control," Roy smirked. Really, he wasn't the sort of person to not think things through. He turned towards the window to watch the rain. No one was out and about - no one would be looking their way. It was the perfect cover.

- - -

**Somewhere in the middle of no-where - **

Alphonse didn't know what was worse, information like this was probably more suited for a nice chat at a coffee house or something along those lines. He now understood all of his weird dreams - all of the slip ups of others calling him Edward. They looked alike - or at least that was what he assumed since half of those that had called him by his brother's name, weren't sleepy - He wondered how much alike they were in mannerisms.

"Where is he?" Al looked up at Yoki, the man his brother had apparently cheated out of a coal mining town. Cleaver, his brother. Yoki blinked.

"You don't know where he is?"

"I think he's on vacation…" he glared at the man, "I didn't know that I even had a brother till now, Of course I don't know where he is!"

Yoki slapped his forehead. Why hadn't he thought of that? Maybe his plan wouldn't work? What if Fullmetal wasn't even in Amestris? What if…and it was a very hard theory to even think of, after all, he wasn't an Alchemist. The thought persisted though….

"What if….Edward Elric is somewhere else? What if the Gate took him to another place?" Alphonse asked the question for him, but it sounded as if the boy was talking to himself. He didn't remember his brother, obviously, that must be why the child was talking of the older boy as a stranger he had only ever heard of.

"Well, why don't you let me go?" Al looked up at Yoki, "After all, you don't know where he is and neither do I," a shrug.

"Why should I do that?" Yoki muttered.

"Well," and at this Al got to his feet and swiped the bindings away from him, "I suppose I could always do it myself, after all, I can always beat you black and blue," he gave a small smile. His voice was soft and gentle as he spoke these words. Blue eyes looked up at him with an innocence Yoki had never seen before. He groaned and his shoulders slumped.

"I'm a failure!" Yoki wailed. He covered his face with his hands and sobbed as if the world was ending. Alphonse sighed and rolled his eyes upwards. He really didn't know what to do for the man that all he could think to do was to pat the man on the back and walk quietly out of the shack and into the pouring rain.

- - -

**Somewhere outside of Central…**

Roy stretched and yawned. He was horribly tired. He hadn't gotten much sleep after being arrested. Interrogation wasn't fun. He might have been worried if he had been arrested in another country - however, since it was his own country - he knew what to expect. It didn't make it any easier.

Riza knew that this wasn't one of Roy's ploys to get out of work, he had been interrogated for over forty-two hours, no snatches of sleep in between the officer's breaks either. They would have kept him on a cycle of sleep deprivation, hoping to wear him down enough to get the information they needed to hang him.

She was thankful that he was a stronger man than most of the men in the military. Either way, she gave Fuery the job of getting food, without bringing anyone to their new hide out, and Havoc the job of guard. Then she wheeled Roy out of the room and into a back bedroom. It had one window that looked out onto the road. She didn't light a lamp. Roy put himself onto the bed. Not daring to take off his boots.

In moments he was asleep. Riza lowered the blinds and pulled up a chair by the window. She would take watch as well.

- - -

Al didn't know how long he walked, nor did he know where he was. Stepping into a dimly lit, rain soaked town was the best thing to happen to him recently. He was soaked through, shivering and sneezing by the time he walked into the grocer. Bumping into Kain Fuery was the second best thing to happen.

"Come on, Al," Fuery whispered as he passed the boy. Al blinked, then rushed after.

In the car; Havoc explained the situation. Why it failed and the fact that they had now gotten Roy out of Prison and that if Al squealed on them, he'd find a bullet between his eyes, courtesy of Riza Hawkeye.

- - -

"I was kidnapped and you broke Colonel Mustang out of prison," Al shook his head. He sat at a wooden table with a wool blanket over his shivering body. He might have been able to dry himself of the rain water, but Alchemy didn't cure colds. Riza put a cup of hot coco in front of Al.

"I know, Mustang's Not-So-Brilliant-Plan went perfectly," she said.

"What….? He planned this?" Al asked. She sighed.

"I don't know if he planned you getting kidnapped by Yoki. But if he did, he'll never admit to it," she shrugged. Al nodded his head. Mustang was obvious in some ways, but in others, totally mysterious. He wasn't sure if he liked that fact or not.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye…can you tell me about Edward?" Al asked.

"First, call me Riza, we're not military any more," She sat down and Al noted the fear rising in her eyes, but she squelched it, fast, before going on.

"Edward, huh? You know he's your brother now?"

"Yes, Yoki told me,"

"That explains it…well….and she launched into the beginning of the brother's tail.

- - -

TBC

- - -

A/N - I didn't want a chapter like that in LOTR with the council and stuff. It would take too much time to go over the anime/manga. So, yeah…I left it there. I'll get back to Edward soon. I don't know how much longer he'll stay in the HP world…..it can't be THAT hard to bring him back!


	16. Quiet Rebellion

**Alchemical Lane**

**Part 16 - Quiet Rebellion**

_Fwip-fwip-fwip…._

The pages turned uselessly under his metal hand. Edward had lost track of time some five hours before. No one had bothered him and he hadn't moved from the floor where he was surrounded by books of magic. None of them held the key that Edward needed. He was almost afraid though…he needed to know if magic used the sacrifice of innocents in the making of the stone. Snape, his fifteenth-cousin-twenty-times-removed…or something along those lines, hadn't explained it.

Library's were useful though. For instead of finding the secret to the Elixir of Life. Edward found something far more useful. Something that seemed to bypass the gate, the Philosopher's Stone, and Equivalent Exchange all together. He could see it in his head, a cross between this magical nonsense and alchemy. How….how could something like that exist?

Edward shook his head. He had to do it. He had to find out more. He looked around, found a promising shelf and got to his feet. His calculations had to be perfect if he was to try something so daringly stupid.

- - -

**Somewhere in the country side, Amestris, - **

"Where are we?" Al asked a she hopped out of the truck. He was dressed in muted browns and he had alchemized his hair into deep black. His blue eyes shown brightly as he looked at the run down barn. Roy Mustang alighted from the truck after the young boy and smirked.

"I like this look on you Al, now I don't automatically think Shrimp," he laughed. Al gave Roy a look.

"I feel that I must reply to that, but since I am not Edward…." he shrugged. Roy just shook his head.

"Follow me," he beckoned to Alphonse who followed on the former Colonel's heels; "I always had a plan to become Fuhrer. You see. I knew, however, that I needed backup. That I wouldn't and couldn't rely on the Army for it. So, you do know about those little up-rises?" he turned to look behind him. Al nodded his head.

"That was me. All of those people did it because they want a new Fuhrer, someone who knows where they came from, that just so happens to be me. I won't let them down, and if we die trying, well - I'll be the first among them," Roy said. He had led Alphonse into the barn, and down some narrow steps from a trap door set into the ground, covered in hay.

"Why are you telling me this?" Al asked, "What if I refuse?"

"You won't," Roy smirked.

"I am beginning to think that Edward is right," Al muttered darkly to himself, true, he didn't remember a lot but Riza had said something about Edward hating Roy and calling him a "Know-It-All Bastard".

Roy just laughed; "I'm not trying to manipulate you, Alphonse, I think you'd be a great asset to us,"

"Sure you do, I just wonder if its gonna be your ass I'll kick first," Al replied sarcastically.

"Watch it, Alphonse, your brothers attitude doesn't look good on you," Roy replied, the gentle smirk softened the rebuke.

"So, what do you have that will give me an incentive to work for you and your rebel army?" Al asked. Roy grinned and then stopped in front of some huge metal doors. Al knew that they were some ways below ground.

"Why this!" Roy struck a pose and the metal doors behind him opened onto a laboratory. Al lost his chin to the floor, flabbergasted.

"Nice, huh?" Roy chuckled deeply.

"What is it?" Al asked.

"It's a time portal," Roy replied as if it should have been apparent what the thing was.

Al walked past Roy and into the room. Large hoses attached to a triangular thing that hung from a chain in the middle of the room. It had to be fifty feet high and sixty wide.

"Wow…"

"All we need is the transmutation circle," Rou shrugged.

"I think….I know which one," he grinned. Then he turned to Roy and saluted him.

"All right, what do I do first?" Al asked.

- - -

**Somewhere else….**

Edward yawned. He was beat and wasn't very happy that Lucius Malfoy and Snape were sharing his research with all an asunder.

His coffee cup hid his smirk, good thing that all of that was junk. But, they didn't need to know that.

- - -

TBC

- - -

A/N - I know this is short….and no Ed, I am not calling you short so don't start on me! Anyway way….I have the sequel up, it's called "Science Only Deals in Absolutes". it's a cross over with Transformer's. I like it. I have the first chapter done as well. Anyway. Please review and I shall get this finished. I am thinking twenty chapters. And I will be concentrating more on what happens in Amestris.

Don't expect puppy dogs and nicely tied bows. *wink*


	17. An Eye for an Eye

**A/N - Okay, so the Prologue for the Sequel is up. **

**Nothing spoiler for this story, or the ending, will be in 'Science Only Deals in Absolutes' - Because, it is essentially a different story, same goal. Just this time we have Transformer's in the mix. I am thinking that the one after may get Edward back to Amestris. But, I am not sure. **

**WARNING - Character Death. Sorry, but I had to do it. **

**Chapter 17 - An Eye for an Eye**

- - -

_The Philosopher's Stone. Those who posses it - no longer bound by the laws of Equivalent Exchange in Alchemy. You can gain without sacrifice, Equivalent Exchange does not matter. We found it. Then….I lost my brother….A.E._

_- - - _

_Day 12 of the Rebellion - _

_I knew that General Mustang was pulling my strings. It seemed as if it was just too perfect, purposefully left to me - so that he knew that I was on his side. Using my desire to gain my memories and my brother back. I may have my body and maybe Edward not being with me was the 'Equivalent Exchange' for my body. But, we had the Philosopher's Stone. So why didn't it work? _

_I fought today. The battle has come from all sides of Amestris and we are a small force against a huge one. But Mustang say's not to worry, that it's all been figured out and that we can win. _

_But, he looks at the Time Portal, and I know he is wishing and hoping for the same thing I am. For Edward to come back to us. To help us out. I don't know much and Hawkeye isn't an Alchemist and she only has a rudimentary knowledge of our art, but she say's that she believes that Edward was the Strongest there ever was and that he could take out an Army if he ever had the mind for it. _

_Would Mustang use that to get to the top? Would my Brother kill thousands upon thousands of people who are just following orders just for a few of us to live? _

_I don't know. I don't think I want to know. _

_A. Elric_

_- - - _

Shutting the leather bound book. Alphonse put it into his nap-sack. He and the others of their small infiltration group were ready to head out and cut supply lines. The three biggest, then they'd be able to siege the Seventy-Forth Calvary. It was simple. Too simple. Something else had to happen. Or Mustang had something up his sleeves.

Whatever it was, he was keeping it close to him. Not unlike the man, at all. Mustang was secretive when it came to his plans and only ever shared when he had too. Alphonse knew that their part was only a small part but would be a huge help later on.

He could only hope that this war didn't last long. He didn't like to kill - even though other's had the same thought - and, he knew, that he had to stay alive for Edward.

- - -

The fighting was harsh. Bullets swept the air like dust and maggots began to grow on dead bodies left to rot in the field. Resembool was a ghost town. No longer the Haven it had once been.

The tears coursed down his eyes as he fought his way through the throngs of blue encrusted men. Winry, Granny Pinako, Amy…other friends he had made….they were gone. Where, or if they were dead. He would never know. He hoped that his letter to Winry had made it and they had gotten out of there as fast as they could. They would have to stay in hiding.

Any friend of his was bound for the executioner's block. It was a formal decree of Bradley's. If they died, here or anywhere else for that matter, Al knew that he would kill the man himself and gain an Equivalent Exchange. Even if a life for a life wasn't equal.

- - -

That night saw the stars shinning brightly as the red glow of the sun finally slipped over the horizon. Alphonse overlooked the cemetery where a few of the locals had been lain to rest, even his mother, that was now full of crudely chopped crosses. He stood before Winry Rockbell and Pinako Rockbell. They had stood their ground after all - and paid an unfair price.

Tears streamed down his face.

He knew that to commit the taboo, a second time, would be the end of his own life. The temptation reared its ugly head till finally Alphonse had to turn away and trudge into the forest. Before him he could see the lantern lights of the Rebel's and he followed.

- - -

_Day 14 of the Rebellion - _

_Winry and Granny Pinako are gone. _

_What more is to say about that? I had hoped that they would take my advice and leave. Go into hiding. But they didn't. They stayed and they fought and they died. Equivalent Exchange - they knew the risks, but, in the end it was unfair. We don't kill innocents, people who have no idea what is going on. _

_Winry died at the hands of Bradley and his State. _

_I shall seek my Revenge!_

_A. Elric_

_- - - _

He snuck up close. This time it was only him against a hundred and forty. Not that he really cared. A clap of his hands and the ground beneath the tent city gave way. Cries of surprise rose into the air as the men found themselves trapped in a huge sink hole. Snickering to himself, Alphonse crawled back into the bush and started on his way to Headquarters.

- - -

He dreamed of them last night. He sat up over a cold cup of coffee in the underground lair they had built for their protection. The sludge was awful but it made the waiting a bit better.

Alphonse's chest hurt, he could hardly breathe because of the weight he felt. If only Edward had been there, maybe they could have saved them….

"WHERE ARE YOU WHEN I NEED YOU!" Alphonse cried out, he threw the cup and it shattered against the wall. He ran out of the mess room, comrades looked after him.

Havoc sighed; "Poor kid,"

Riza nodded. Poor child indeed.

- - -

Edward woke with a start. For a moment he thought that he had heard his brother's voice over the wind that seeped through the cracks in the castle wall. He shook his head and firmly told himself that he had been dreaming about home, again.

- - -

TBC

- - -

OMAKE -

A/N - This is a bit from "Science only Deals in Absolutes' Enjoy!

From CH1

- - -

"_It's called Automail, as you see, I had a slight malfunction," he grinned. _

"_What's your name, Shorty?" one of the men asked. _

"_WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MOUSY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK!!!!????" Edward yelled. The man backed up a little at Edward's rant. _

"_Whoa, whoa, sorry. I am Captain William Lennox, commanding officer here, well, besides Optimus Prime," Will pointed over to the tallest of the human-like robotic form. Edward gazed over. _

"_Huh, that's very interesting…" he muttered. _

"_What is your name?" Optimus asked. Edward was suddenly reminded of Al, and their years traveling their home country in search of the Philosopher's Stone. _

"_My name is Edward Elric," he grinned. _

"_Where did you come from?" this voice was that of another human-robot. Grey all over and Edward guessed Optimus' second in command. _

"_That depends, how crazy will you think I am if I tell you?" Edward grinned sheepishly, his bio arm went up and behind his head. The Automail hand rested on his hip. _


End file.
